123046 PS PS Literary Studies (2023S)

This Proseminar introduces students to core concepts in the Medical Humanities and Postcolonial Studies and considers the relationships between these two disciplines. It invites us to ask: what do we mean when we speak of 'global health'? And who is the 'we' who defines what it means to have ‘health’ anyway? How has imperialism, colonialism, and its continuities in the capitalist world system impacted understandings and experiences of health and illness? Crucially, how do writers in Indigenous and postcolonial locales (re)imagine wellbeing?

The course considers 'medical' in its broadest sense as we explore a selection of late-20th and 21st century Anglophone novels, poems, and drama dealing with representations of health, wellbeing, and illness. We will analyse texts from Africa, Indigenous Oceania, the Caribbean, Canada, Britain and diasporic literatures. Topics discussed will include (but are not limited to) mental health, race, self-care, gender, medicine and healing, environmental health, illness, intergenerational trauma, care, ageing, dementia, biocolonialism and biopiracy.
The course will also introduce students to the basics of academic methodology, including conducting close textual analysis, researching and refining a research topic, engaging with theory and criticism, structuring a research paper, and academic integrity.

Aims:
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
-- recognise and identify core concepts in Medical Humanities and Postcolonial Studies, and discuss these concepts in relation to a range of Anglophone texts.
-- develop their capacity for independent and self-reflexive thought via analyses of health, wellbeing, and illness in various literatures.
-- practice core academic skills required for classroom participation, presentations, and writing essays.

Methods:
Students will learn via seminar preparation and discussion, oral presentations, research assignments, eLearning, independent research, close reading exercises, essay workshops, peer-to-peer learning, and short integrated lectures.