Syllabi: Narrative Pathologies, Narrative Cures

INSTITUTION: Brown University

INSTRUCTOR: Chris Amirault (email: Chris_Amirault@Brown.edu)

Department of Modern Culture and Media

ENROLLMENT: undergraduate seminar; elective

SEMESTER: Spring 1999

Wed 3-5:20 pm

screenings: Sun and Tues 7 pm

I. OVERVIEW:

It is well understood that literary, cinematic, autobiographical, and televisual texts largely rely on narrative to make meaning. As a result of this understanding, most explorations of medicine and culture discuss how examples of these cultural forms address certain "truths" or "themes" of medicine. In this course, however, we will take a significantly different approach, by presuming that medicine is itself constituted by a set of interrelated narratives that function as etiology and diagnosis, as epistemology and method -- as explanations of what medicine was, is, and should be.

This course will explore the relationship between contemporary medical discourse and narrative texts that seek to represent, reflect upon, or challenge those discourses. We will first discuss how medicine and psychiatry themselves deploy narrative as a means to explain sickness, to describe "normal," "healthy" subjects, and to engage in therapeutic practice and scientific research. Then we will read texts in and around specific "cases" that engage medical narratives in different ways to different ends. The third part of the course will focus on AIDS and its narratives. Finally, we will consider the relation between medicine and desire.

II. BOOKS:

You must purchase the following at the Brown Bookstore:

Michel Foucault, The Birth of the Clinic

Sigmund Freud, Dora: An Analysis of a Case of Hysteria

Lucy Grealy, Autobiography of a Face

Hervé Guibert, To the Friend Who Would Not Save My Life

Kathryn Montgomery Hunter, Doctors' Stories

Susanna Kaysen, Girl, Interrupted

Susan Sontag, Illness as Metaphor and AIDS and Its Metaphors

You must also obtain the course copy packet from Jo-Art copy. Always bring the readings for the week to class

III. TELEVISION, VIDEO, AND FILM SCREENINGS:

You must attend screenings of the films listed below. Screenings will be held on Sunday and Tuesday evenings at 7:00 pm in room 106 of 155 George St. You should see the visual texts twice, particularly those about which you expect to write your papers. When possible, I will make tapes available for screening at media services. To insure that you are prepared to discuss and write about the visual texts, you must take detailed notes, not only on plot and characters but also on other elements such as framing, editing, mise en scene, and sound. If you are unsure how to take good notes on visual texts, come and see me.

IV. WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS:

Although this course is meant to explore a certain "content" -- here the correspondence between medicine and narrative - as a senior seminar in Modern Culture and Media it is also meant to help you learn to plan and write seminar papers. We will work our way up to those longer papers gradually with a series of shorter assignments.

Weeklies: For the second through fifth weeks, you will have to write a formal, 1-2 page paper that presents a close reading of a section from that week's texts. I will accept as many weeklies as you wish to write; at the end of the semester, I'll drop your lowest grades until you're left with four. The primary function of these weekly papers is to give you an opportunity to practice the kind of reading and writing expected in this course, in a format that is shorter and less time-consuming than full-fledged papers. Furthermore, because each weekly is worth a mere 5% of your final grade and because I will include only the top four in your final grade, there is less at stake in each one.

These weekly papers should perform a close reading of a piece of the text for that week -- a sentence, paragraph, page, shot, or scene -- in which you analyze the intricacies located there; you can write on any text we've read or screened for that week. When we read a text, we often assume that everyone else sees the same thing that we do, but that is rarely true. Your task is first and foremost to show the reader how you made meaning from the text, and that requires careful attention. Furthermore, when we read, we have a tendency to read quickly, and as a result we often miss subtle things about the text that closer attention reveals. Your reading should be a slow one that focuses on the confusions, tensions, contradictions, difficulties, even silences of the text.

Thus, the weekly should demonstrate how the passage you've chosen makes meaning, raises certain questions, and challenges other readings. It should not retell a scene or summarize the plot, nor review general "themes," nor evaluate the text; such papers will receive low grades. So that the reader can follow you, you need to do a few things. Be sure to incorporate the text you're exploring by inserting each piece of it (a quote, a brief description of a scene or shot) in the appropriate place in your paper. Most weeklies should refer to one or (at most) two pieces. As you write, continue to refer back to the specific elements -- words, phrases, sentences, shots -- that support your reading. Take the reader with you. You may see connections to larger issues raised by the text, and you should feel free to explore their meanings and implications, but only insofar as they are explicitly addressed in the passage you're reading. In doing so, you'll have to distinguish between things that you draw from the text and those that you bring to the text.

Short Paper and Long Paper: You will be required to write two papers, due 3/18 and 5/12. The short paper should be 4-6 pages long and the long paper should be 10-15 pages long. For the first paper you may take a one week late slip and pass in your paper the following week; simply write me a brief note on the day the paper is due. Paper topics are up to you. You probably will want to stick to the texts we're reading in class; no outside reading or research is required. "Experimental" formats are only hesitatingly encouraged. No matter what mode of expression you choose, you will still be obliged to make sense to this reader. Proposals: For each paper you must write a proposal, due 3/4 and 4/22. These proposals should be one full page (no more, no less) and single spaced. In your proposal, propose a paper; don't feel compelled to write a summary of a paper that you haven't written yet. Some things to explore in a proposal include:

a detailed explanation of what you think your purpose/thesis/argument will be;
a few of the texts you'll be reading;
a description of the analytical process you expect to pursue in your reading;
some of the problems you are encountering or you expect to encounter;
a set of central questions you hope to ask and consider;
an explanation of why you're writing this paper.

On the day a proposal is due, you should bring in four (4) copies of the proposal. I will read one copy, and three of your classmates will read a copy. The following week, everyone will return their responses to the writers. Proposals will be graded S/NC and will be incorporated as part of your "etcetera" grade below.

V. LEADING DISCUSSION:

Each student will be expected to lead part of class discussion on a day's text. The student leading discussion will start by drawing the class's attention to a small selection of text(s): a sentence or paragraph, a short scene or shot from a video. Then the student will provide a few guiding questions about the selections. Questions should strive to extend the conversation that constitutes the activity of the seminar and should not seek definitive, yes or no answers. As such, they should rarely start with "Is" or "Does" but rather with "How" ("How does this text understand what 'healthy' means?") or "What" ("What are the implications of juxtaposing Hunter's claims with this?"). After hearing the questions, the rest of us will take five minutes or so to consider them and to propose our own questions in writing, and then we will discuss the issues at hand.

VI. CLASS TIME:

This class will be conducted as a seminar, and class time will focus primarily on discussion, presentations, and, less so, on brief lectures. We will frequently read texts together and screen clips of the visual texts. I expect everyone to come prepared for class by having read the texts for the day, written any assignments, and considered topics for discussion. Regular attendance is required. You are allowed a total of three (3) absences. After that, each additional absence will result in your final grade dropping by 1/3 (from a BÐ to a C+, for example). As a result, I urge you not to be absent unless you absolutely cannot make class.

VII. GRADES:

Papers will be graded on a standard letter grading scale with pluses and minuses:

* An A means that I find that the paper to be essentially understandable and coherent. An A paper negotiates the texts and issues it discusses with clarity and precision, and it develops ideas I find interesting and thoughtful. It has few (if any) errors and exhibits a strong, consistent sense of the reader in terms of structure, transitions, and tone. Its precision of language is outstanding.

* A B means that while overall I understood the paper, in spots I got lost or confused, often because of contradictions in logic or lack of support for statements; this usually makes the paper seem less thoughtful. A B paper demonstrates less clarity and precision than an A paper. It addresses the assignment and has few errors. Finally, it exhibits some sense of the reader in terms of structure, transitions, and tone but may in a few spots be inconsistent or imprecise.

* A C means that I found the paper difficult to understand. It may address the assignment generally but doesn't seem to have a specific focus, thesis, or purpose. There are usually many inconsistencies of tone, organization, or logic, all of which prevent the reader from being able to make sense of the paper. It can have a few, or many, errors.

* An NC means that I didn't understand the paper at all. This usually happens because the paper doesn't address the assignment or the texts in any clear or coherent way. Although my grading system may not be familiar to you, it is not arbitrary, and I make every effort to be as clear and consistent as I can about grades. If you ever have a question about why you received the grade you did, please come and talk to me.

Final grades will be calculated as follows:

Weeklies: four highest grades at 5% each 20%
Short Paper: 20%
Final Paper: 40%
Etcetera: Proposals, leading discussion, class participation 20%

VI. MUNDANE REQUIREMENTS:

Papers, proposals, and weeklies must be written on a computer or a typewriter; they must have your name and the date against the top right margin of the first page; papers and weeklies must be double-spaced, must have page numbers and reasonable margins, and must use a standard citation format. No title pages! You are required to complete all assigned work to receive a final grade. Incompletes are for students confronting emergencies; if you have one, please let me know so that we can figure something out. Finally, we are building a small, fragile community in this class and will be discussing complicated and often sensitive issues, so I expect everyone to treat everyone else in the course with due respect.

COURSE OUTLINE

Part I: Narratives in/of Medicine and Psychiatry

Week 1 (Jan 21). Introduction to Course

Week 2 (Jan 28). Narrative in Medicine

screening: ER , Chicago Hope (selected episodes), No Way Out.

reading: Foucault, "Preface," "Signs and Cases" (esp 88-98), and "Seeing and Knowing" (esp 113-115) from Birth of the Clinic; Hunter, "Introduction" and "Knowledge in Medicine" from Doctors' Stories.

assignment: weekly paper (required).

Week 3 (Feb 4). Medical Discourses/Narratives/Subjects

screening: Magnificent Obsession, The Doctor.

reading: Foucault, " Spaces and Classes" (esp 3-9, 14-16) and "The Lesson of the Hospitals" (esp 68-69, 81-85))from Birth of the Clinic; Hunter, "A Science of Individuals" and "The Representation of the Patient" from Doctors' Stories; Meyer, "Rock Hudson's Body" (CP).

assignment: weekly (required).

Special Screening:

Sick: The Life and Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist
Cable Car Cinema, Time and Date TBA

Week 4 (Feb 11). Self and Story in Medicine

screening: The Waterdance, The Singing Detective (1).

reading: Grealy, The Autobiography of a Face; Cousins, "Anatomy of an Illness" (CP); Kleinman, "Preface," "The Meaning of Symptoms and Disorders," and "The Personal and Social Meanings of Illness" (esp 48-49) from The Illness Narratives (CP).

assignments: weekly (required).

Week 5 (Feb 18). Self and Story in Psychotherapy

screening: Three Faces of Eve, Singing Detective (2).

reading: Freud, "Femininity" (CP); Levi-Strauss, "The Sorcerer and His Magic" (CP); Walker, "Marriage and Psychiatry" (CP).

Part II: Four Cases

Week 6 (Feb 25). Hysteria

screening: Freud, The Snake Pit

reading: Freud, Dora.

Week 7 (Mar 4). Depression

screening: Best Years of Our Lives, Mr. Jones

reading: Kaysen, Girl, Interrupted; Kramer, "Introduction," "Makeover," and "Compulsion" from Listening to Prozac (CP).

assignment: proposal for paper one (bring in four copies).

Week 8 (Mar 11). Cancer
screening: Love Story, My Life

reading: Sontag, Illness as Metaphor.

Week 9 (Mar 18). Eating Disorders

screening: The Famine Within, Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story

no reading.

assignment: paper one due.

Spring Break.

Part III: AIDS, "AIDS" and its Narratives

Week 10 (Apr 1). What is AIDS? What is "AIDS"?

screening: Philadelphia, Twelve Monkeys

reading: Grover, "AIDS: Keywords" (CP); Epstein, "Explaining AIDS" (CP).

Week 11 (Apr 8). AIDS and Medical Discourse

screening: And the Band Played On, Growing Up in the Age of AIDS

reading: Treichler, "AIDS, Homophobia, and Biomedical Discourse: An Epidemic of Signification" (CP); Edelman, The Plague of Discourse" (CP); Haraway, "The Biopolitics of Postmodern Bodies: Constitutions of Self in Immune System Discourse" (CP).

Week 12 (Apr 15). "AIDS" and Stories of Race and Nation

screening: NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw, ER (selected episodes), Outbreak, Time Out

reading: Sontag, AIDS and Its Metaphors, Simon Watney, "Missionary Politics: AIDS, Africa, and Race" (CP).

Week 13 (Apr 22). AIDS, Identity, Auto/Biography

screening: The Real World: San Francisco, Silverlake Life: The View from Here, Danny

reading: Guibert, To the Friend Who Would Not Save My Life

assignment: proposal for paper two (bring in four copies).

Part IV: Wrap-Up

Week 14 (Apr 29). Medicalized Desires

screening: Dark Victory, Dead Ringers, Sick

no reading.

Week 15 (May 6). Conclusion.

assignment: course evaluation essay.

Final paper due at MCM no later than 5 pm on Monday, May 12.

If you would like me to provide a written evaluation of your final essay, give me a self-addressed stamped envelope, and I will be happy to return your paper with copious marginalia and a substantial end comment.