ENGL531

Special Topic: Literature and the Medicalised Body

2018

30

500

B Trimester

Hamilton

'Odd to think that the piece of you I know best is already dead. The cells on the surface of your skin are thin and flat without blood-vessels or nerve-endings.' - Jeanette Winterson, 'The Cells, Tissues, Systems and Cavities of the Body'. This paper explores literature's engagement with the medicalised body and mind, mapping out the arts' responses to medical advances, beginning with the mid-nineteenth century and ending at the present day. We will study late nineteenth-century reactions to the scare of germs, vaccinations, and nervous disorders, move through the dark period of eugenics in the early twentieth century, and arrive at contemporary engagements with immune diseases and cancer, looking too at current political usages of the medicalised body. Incorporating film, novels, short stories, plays, and poetry, this paper will also draw on philosophical and medical texts to engage with illnesses and disorders in the body, mind, and nation-state. Authors such as G.B. Shaw, Samuel Beckett, Donna Haraway, Susan Sontag, Gerald Callahan, and Peter Sloterdijk will be included.

Teaching Periods and Locations

18B (HAM)
Paper outline
B Trimester :
09 Jul 2018 - 04 Nov 2018
Hamilton On-campus 100% internal assessment

Timetabled lectures

18B (HAM)
Name Day Time Room Dates
Lecture 1 Thur 10:00 AM - 1:00 PM TC.4.08, Hamilton Jul 12 - Oct 14
Visit the online timetable for this paper for more details

Indicative Fees

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Domestic
International
18B (HAM) $1,898

You will be sent an enrolment agreement which will confirm your fees. Tuition fees shown are indicative only and may change. There are additional fees and charges related to enrolment - please see the Table of Fees and Charges for more information.

18B (HAM) $7,165

You will be sent an enrolment agreement which will confirm your fees. Tuition fees shown are indicative only and may change. There are additional fees and charges related to enrolment - please see the Table of Fees and Charges for more information.

Available subjects

Additional information

  • Paper details current as of 31 May 2024 18:36pm
  • Indicative fees current as of 13 Sep 2024 01:20am