English 210

I. Course Title: Narratives of Illness, Disability, and Caretaking

II. Course Number: ENGL 210

III. Credit Hours: 3 credits

IV. Prerequisites: Core 101 or ENGL 111

V. Course Description: 

A survey of fictional, dramatic, and/or auto/biographical narratives that focus on the experience of illness, disability, and caretaking from a variety of perspectives, including that of patients and healthcare practitioners. Narratives chosen for study represent a range of genres, styles, periods, and modes. This course functions as an introduction to the goals and primary methods of the health humanities and is required for students pursuing the Health Humanities minor. Lecture.

VI. Detailed Description of Content of the Course:

This course is a survey of illness, disability, and caretaking narratives that simultaneously introduces students to the history, aims, and major methodologies of the health humanities, an interdisciplinary field with strong ties to literary and cultural studies. Depending on instructor preference and areas of expertise, course topics may include the following:

1. History of the health humanities as a discipline, including its evolution from a course in the medical school curriculum to a field that operates in multiple educational contexts and encompasses many methodologies.
2. Health humanities’ role in preparing clinical healthcare practitioners, students in health adjacent careers, and lay individuals who will need to manage their own health needs as well as those of others.
3. The main outcomes of the health humanities and how they are shaped by one’s perspective relative to clinical healthcare; some of those outcomes include: empathy, professionalism, suspending judgment, perspective taking, critical consciousness, social justice advocacy, and emotional/psychological regulation.
4. The definition of narrative. 
5. The definition of “lifewriting (i.e., biography, and memoir), and why lifewriting about illness, disability, and caretaking is important. 
6. Some controversies and misconceptions about lifewriting, (e.g., historical versus perspectival truth) and why they matter in the context of lifewriting texts about illness, disability, and caretaking.
7. The extent to which a variety of discursive and audio/visual materials can be considered “literary texts” and can be analyzed using methodologies from literary and cultural studies.
8. The “close reading” of narrative and other texts, one of the primary methodologies of the health humanities as well as literary studies.
9. The concept of “narrative medicine,” or the similarities between narrative texts and the narratives told by patients/health care practitioners in clinical settings.
10. Illness and disability as metaphor and metaphors of illness and disability, and the consequences of regarding illness and disability in this way.
11. The relationship between narratives of illness, disability, and caretaking and their larger cultural, social, scientific contexts.
12. The extent to which narratives of illness, disability, and caretaking reflect, remake, and mobilize notions of race, gender, class, sexuality, etc., and their intersections.
13. Controversies surrounding the production, consumption, and critique of illness, disability, and caretaking narratives.   
14. The basic tenets of academic writing about literature and/or writing for public audiences.

VI. Detailed Description of Conduct of Course:

The following instructional strategies may be used in the course, depending on instructor preference:

1. Lecture
2. “Flipped” learning exercises
3. Small- and large-group discussion
4. Guest lecture
5. Problem-based learning
6. Writing-to-learn
7. Collaborative learning
8. Peer-led learning
9. Distance learning and computer-assisted instruction

VII. Goals and Objectives of the Course:

By the end of the course, a student will be able to successfully:

1. Define the health humanities and recognize the role of literary studies in this interdisciplinary field.
2. Explain the purpose of the health humanities for various groups, including patients and healthcare providers as well as undergraduates pursuing careers in and outside of the health sciences.
3. Define the concept of “narrative,” and recognize the basic conventions of select literary genres.
4. Apply close reading strategies to texts by analyzing the larger significance of choices related to language, imagery, tone, etc. 
5. Analyze tropes, themes, and metaphors related to illness, disability, caretaking, etc., and compare their emergence across literary genres, styles, and historical periods.
6. Understand the relationship between (1) narrative tropes, themes, and metaphors related to illness, disability, and caretaking, and (2) concomitant scientific, historic, and socio-cultural contexts. 
7. Analyze the ways in which gender, race, class, sexuality, etc., are implicated in narratives of illness, disability, and caretaking.
8. Examine illness, disability, and caretaking as matters of rhetoric.
9. Articulate the importance of accessibility in social, clinical, and other contexts.
10. Compare the perspectives of healthcare practitioners, patients, caretakers, and other groups, as these points of view emerge in narrative texts. 
11. Reflect on the relationship between one’s experience/interests and the health humanities. 
12. Develop a greater ability for suspending judgment, perspective taking, empathy, and critical consciousness.
13. Produce analytical, argumentative, and/or reflective writing about narratives of illness, disability, and caretaking for academic and/or non-academic audiences.

VIII. Assessment Measures:

Students will be assessed using a variety of formative and summative measures. Depending on instructor preference, students may be assessed via:

1. Quizzes and homework
2. Informal, in-class writing exercises
3. Informal, targeted writing activities completed outside of class, such as reading responses, journals, or logs
4. Formal composition activities, such as traditional academic essays but also reflective, professional, digital, and multimodal writing assignments 
5. Outlines, drafts, and revision work of major assignments
6. Peer-to-peer writing workshops 
7. Creative writing
8. Creative projects, including “remixed” multimodal writing assignments
9. Essay exams
10. Oral exams
11. Collaborative/individual projects or presentations
12. Portfolios or ePortfolios
13. Class discussion 

Review and Approval

August 2020