LS 383: Senior Seminar / Writing Intensive

(This course is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Cherie Haeger.)

Instructor: Berwyn Moore, Associate Professor of English

Office: PC 3240

Office Hours: MWF: 1:30 - 3

TTH: 11 - 12 (and by appointment)

Phone: 871-7504

e-mail: moore001@mail1.gannon.edu

Davis, Cortney, and Judy Schaefer, eds. Between the Heartbeats: Poetry and Prose by Nurses. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1995.

Reynolds, Richard, M.D., and John Stone, M.D. eds. On Doctoring: Stories, Poems, Essays. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001.

Coles, Robert. The Call of Stories: Teaching and the Moral Imagination. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1989.

Flitter, Marc. Judith’s Pavilion: The Haunting Memories of a Neurosurgeon. Warner Books, 1997.

Carmichael, Ann G., and Richard M. Ratzan, eds. Medicine: A Treasury of Art and Literature. New York: Beaux Arts Editions, 1991.

Downie, R.S., ed. The Healing Arts: An Oxford Illustrated Anthology. London: Oxford University Press, 1994.

Literature and the Healing Arts is a senior seminar which uses literature as the basis for examining universal concerns of health, illness, and healing. These include the health care worker-patient relationship and its accompanying moral and ethical issues, historical approaches to healing and their implications for modern medical practices, and the cultural, racial, and ethnic dimensions of these issues. While the course benefits anyone interested in literature and the medical arts, it will be especially useful for students planning careers in medicine, nursing, medical technology, or health administration.

Through the selected poems, stories, and essays, students will appreciate their roles not just as healers or caregivers but as compassionate human beings. They will see the importance of fostering the humane side of medicine: understanding the needs of patients as unique individuals, communicating with people who have limited medical knowledge, expressing compassion and empathy in the face of tragedy and grief, and making sound judgments in complex ethical situations. In particular, they will read about medical workers and patients living and dying in a variety of circumstances: individuals fighting against cancer, AIDS, dyptheria, leprosy, and diabetes; women having babies, suffering miscarriages, and considering abortion; family members grieving the loss of a loved one; communities coping with epidemics; young people attempting suicide or overdosing on drugs; physicians making grave misjudgments about patients' care, and many others.

This course is conducted as a seminar with guided group discussion. The interdisciplinary basis of the course will foster independent critical and creative thinking and challenge preconceived and faulty assumptions. The seminar format will provide a supportive environment conducive to the discovery and formative exchange of ideas among all participants – students and instructor. Students are expected to participate actively in a collaborative learning process and to be responsible for their own learning.

At the beginning of the course, students will be asked to design their own heuristic, a set of questions about their specific medical interests and concerns. The heuristic will then be used as the basis for exploring the literature for the ways others have addressed such questions, in both imagined and actual situations. Some sample questions include the following:

Cultural Assumptions:

*How do health care practices reflect cultural assumptions, beliefs, and mythologies?

*How have cultural assumptions about health and healing changed over time, particularly in the 20th century?

*Why are some diseases stigmatized? How can cultural stigmas be disconnected from individuals with certain diseases (e.g. TB or AIDS)?

*How does popular culture portray doctors? Nurses? Patients? What are the implications of these portrayals in the practice of real medicine?

Healer/Patient Relationship:

*What are the characteristics of a "good" doctor? A good nurse or technician? How does one become a "good" health care worker?

*What criteria do doctors use to make crucial decisions about treatments for their patients who are terminally ill? Who are elderly? Or who are in uncertain economic situations?

*How should medical professionals view death?

Medical Ethics:

*What are the principles of medical ethics? In research (e.g. DNA research, human embryo research or human cloning)? In practice (e.g. abortion, passive euthanasia and active euthanasia, or the use of marijuana)?

*How does one reconcile a personal medical ethic with a standard medical practice?

*What is the role of communication in providing effective health care?

*What metaphors are used for illness? For patients? For healing? Do these metaphors affect the way medical workers view their roles and responsibilities?'

*How important is language when describing pain, fear, or hopelessness?

Students read, think, and write critically.

Students analyze the elements of literature from a sound critical perspective.

Students discern the emotional, psychological, and cultural contexts of literature.

Students interpret literature in the context of medical arts.

Students evaluate literature as a catalyst and as a source of information about the health worker-patient relationship.

Students define the characteristics of an effective health care worker.

Students assess the role of communication between health care workers and their patients.

Students understand the implications of medical ethics both professionally and personally.

Students appreciate the ethnic and cultural diversity of their prospective patients.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND GRADING

Participation and Attendance :

You should arrive to class on time and be prepared to participate actively in discussion and other activities. Each absence above two will result in a five-point reduction of your final grade.

Individual Heuristic:

Early in the semester, you will write a heuristic, a set of questions used for the exploration, discovery, and self-education of your concerns about being a health care worker, a patient, or both. The questions may focus on a particular area of medicine, such as pediatrics, internal medicine, geriatrics, public health, or mental illness; on a specific disease, such as cancer, AIDS, or schizophrenia; or on a controversial health care issue, such as abortion, euthanasia, or genetic manipulation. However, all heuristics must ultimately address the more universal concerns of the individual and his or her community; for these concerns, you may incorporate the questions suggested on this syllabus under "Methods."

Response Papers:

Throughout the semester, you will be asked to respond in writing to the readings, a guest speaker, videos, and class discussion. These responses will help you explore your position on many issues, including the ones presented in your heuristic. Instructions for these papers will be given during class, and the papers will be due the next class day. You may decide the length (development) of these papers, but they should be typed. There is no make-up allowed for missed assignments

Group Project:

Groups of 3 or 4 students will work collaboratively on a project to be presented orally to the class. Groups may lead class discussion about a literary work, a movie, a television show, or actual experience, as long as it addresses medical issues. The topic is open and you are encouraged to be creative with this assignment. Each member of the group will receive the same grade. #9; #9;

Heuristic Response:

At the end of the semester, you are to write a thorough analysis of your position on at least two of the questions formulated in your heuristic. This 5 – 8 page paper should incorporate sources effectively and document them correctly using either the APA or MLA style of documentation. This paper will provide you opportunity to "integrate the concepts and methodologies presented in earlier Liberal Studies courses" (Gannon University 2000-2001 Undergraduate Catalog, 55) as well as material from your major courses, if appropriate. This paper should represent your best work and will be evaluated meticulously on both content and readability.

Academic Integrity:

Plagiarized papers will warrant an F for the course. Refer to your student handbook for information.

Participation #9; #9; 50 points

Heuristic #9; #9; 50

Response Papers x 7 #9; 70

Group Project #9; #9; 30

Heuristic Analysis 100

_____

300 points

Final Grade: 300 – 270 = A

269 – 260 = B+

259 – 240 = B

239 – 230 = C+

229 – 210 = C

209 – 180 = D

You will find material related to this course in books, magazines, journals, television shows, movies, and the Internet. Below is a list of titles I have put together. As you find additional titles, please let me know so they can be added.

* Indicates work or other works by this author available in Nash Library.

**Indicates work you may borrow from me.

Books:

**Abbas, M.D., Maher Aref. Beyond the Magic Scalpel

Anderson, Charles M. Richard Selzer and the Rhetoric of Surgery

Bailin, Miriam. The Sickroom in Victorian Fiction

Bonvillain, Nancy. Native American Medicine

Bremen, Brian A. William Carlos Williams and the Diagnosis of Culture

**Brooke, Elisabeth, ed. Medicine Women: A Pictorial History of Women Healers

**Brookes, Tim. Signs of Life: A Memoir of Dying and Discovery

*Camus, Albert. The Plague

*Chopin, Kate. The Awakening

Clark, Bruce. The Body and the Text: Comparative Essays in Literature and Medicine

**Cytowic, Richard. The Man Who Tasted Shapes

DeSalvo, Louise. Writing as a Way of Healing

Driscoll, Frances. The Rape Poems

Helman, Cecil. The Body of Frankenstein's Monster: Essays in Myth and Medicine

Henke, Suzette. Shattered Subjects: Trauma and Testimony in Women’s Life-Writing

Herman, Judith Lewis. Trauma and Recovery

*Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis

*Kubler Ross, Elizabeth, On Death and Dying

**London, Oscar. Kill as Few Patients as Possible

Lorde, Audre. The Cancer Journals

*Mitchell, S. W. The Autobiography of a Quack

*Mukand, Jon. Articulations: The Body and Illness in Poetry

*Nuland, Sherwin B. How We Die: Reflections on Life's Final Chapter

*-----. The Wisdom of the Body

*Ober, William B. Boswell's Clap and Other Essays

-----. Bottoms Up! A Pathologist's Essay on Medicine and the Humanities

Pennebaker, James W. Opening Up: The Healing Power of Confiding in Others

**Regush, Nicholas. The Virus Within: A Coming Epidemic

*Roberts, Marie. Literature and Medicine During the 18th Century

Rothfield, Lawrence. Vital Signs: Medical realism in 19th Century Fiction

*Sacks, Oliver. The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat

*-----. Awakenings

*-----. Seeing Voices: A Journey into the World of the Deaf

**Sandblom, M.D., Ph.D., Creativity and Disease

*Scarry, Elaine. The Body in Pain

Selzer, Richard. Letters to a Young Doctor

**-----. Mortal Lessons: Notes on the Art of Surgery

-----. Raising the Dead

Scheidermayer, David L. House Calls, Rounds, and Healings: A Poetry Casebook

*Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein

*Sontag, Susan. Illness as Metaphor

*Stevenson, Robert Louis. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Stone, John. In All This Rain

Thomas, Lewis. Notes of Medicine Watcher.

Tolstoy, The Death of Ivan Ilych

*Williams, William Carlos. The Autobiography of William Carlos Williams.

Ibid., The Doctor Stories.

Journals:

Literature and Medicine (Inter-library loan and on-line)

**Mediphors

Stitches, The Journal of Medical Humour (Inter-library loan)

http://endeavor.med.nyu.edu/lit-med/

Web Searches: Literature and Medicine

Medical Humanities

The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939)

The following schedule identifies due dates for all assignments except the response papers, which will be assigned during class sessions. Reading assignments are identified primarily on a weekly basis (rather than daily) in order to provide more flexibility with our in-class discussion time. Please come to class on each Tuesday having read all the selections assigned for that week; some, of course, will be discussed on Thursday. If adjustments need to be made to the schedule, we will make them collaboratively. Guest speakers will be scheduled in at their convenience.

(Since this schedule was made prior to my having a copy of the 2001 edition of On Doctoring, page references to this book have been omitted. Also, the list of readings may be modified as we progress.)

Renwick’s essay, "Where are You Now, Ella Wade?" pp. 148-152

Waring’s poem, "Between Rounds," p. 208

1. Williams' poems, "Going" and "A Day in the Death"

Pastan's poem, "The Five Stages of Grief"

Gonzales-Crussi's essay, "On Embalming"

Carver's poem, "My Death"

Donald Hall's poems (hand-outs)

BTH: LeVasseur’s poem, "The Lullaby," p. 104

Waring’s poem, "Euthanasia," pp. 205-207

The Health Professional’s Perspective: A Second Look