GEH 102

GEH 102 – Cultural History of the Body

First- Year Learning Community

MW 11:30-12:45 Arts 220

Course Website: http://courses.csusm.edu/geh101ms (password required)

USER NAME: student PASSWORD: body

Course Description:

In this second half of the course we will build on our knowledge of ancient, Medieval, and Early Modern medicine, literature, and art to look at more recent representations of the body, health, and illness. We will read medical writing and literary works from the Enlightenment onward, watch (and listen to) several films (including an opera), and explore selected works of art. Common questions explored will include:

How does society treat illness, dying, and death?
As we imagine a healthy or ill person, how do we imagine that person with respect to “difference” (gender, “race,” ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, and so on)?
Are illness and health located in the body, in the mind, or in some combination of the two? What is “mental” illness?
How should we use our increasing knowledge of genetics and our other advances in medical technology and science?

This course will be linked to GESS 102 and GEO102, and I encourage you to be open to, and to share with the class, connections among the three courses as this will enhance the course for all of us.

Learning Objectives:

Explore how literature, the philosophy of medicine, art, film, and opera represent the body, health, and illness, including the personal and social meanings of:
- Pain and suffering
- Epidemic and fatal illness (tuberculosis, cancer, AIDS)
- Gender and other forms of “difference”
- Human bodily variation (gender and other “differences”)
- Genomic science, artificial intelligence, prosthetics, and other aspects of what might be called “posthuman” medicine.
Develop a working knowledge of selected significant developments in the history of medicine from the Enlightenment to the present
Expand your understanding of the cultural history of the body to the present day and the definitions of the healthy and ill body that shape your experiences as a citizen, family member, and patient.
Develop your skills as an analytical reader, an effective discussant, and a writer of the “idea paper” or short essay

Required Texts:

Bookstore Texts

Sontag, Susan. Illness as Metaphor and AIDS as Metaphor.

Rothman, David, et al., ed. Medicine and Western Civilization

Stoker, Dracula

On-line texts

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. “The Yellow Wallpaper.”

Kafka, The Metamorphosis

Poetry by Campo, Donne, Abse, and others

Tolstoi, “The Death of Ivan Ilych”

Carver, “A Small, Good Thing”

Chekhov, “Misery”

Films

The Wings of the Dove

Wit

Date	What’s Happening in Class	What’s Due
1/27	Review of metaphor and Sontag’s key ideas	Sontag, Illness as Metaphor(begin)
1/29	Sontag, continued.	Sontag, Illness as Metaphor (finish)
2/3	Discussion of Kafka’s long short story The Metamorphosis	Kafka, The Metamorphosis (on-line—see website)
2/5	Context lecture: Tuberculosis in the nineteenth century and the discovery of bacterial causes of disease	Rothman, 319-329
2/10	Context lecture: mind/body/gender and illness in the nineteenth century. Pre-Raphaelite art and illness as beauty.	Rothman 92-102 and 178-197
2/12	“The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman PROMPTS FOR PAPER 1 DISTRIBUTED; REVIEW OF STATEMENT OUTLINE	Gilman, “The Yellow Wallpaper” (on-line)
2/17	Film Screening and discussion The Wings of the Dove
2/19	“	Paper #1 due
2/24	AIDs as Metaphor.	Sontag, AIDs and its Metaphors. (in same book as Illness as Metaphor)
2/26	“ PROMPTS FOR PAPER 2 DISTRIBUTED
3/3	Film Screening and Discussion All about My Mother	Poems handout Rothman 426-433
3/5	“”	Paper #2 due
3/10	Bram Stoker, Dracula	Read Chapters 1-7
3/12	Bram Stoker, Dracula	Chapters 8-10
3/17	Bram Stoker, Dracula.	Chapters 11-15
3/19	Bram Stoker, Dracula	Chapters 16-20
3/24	Bram Stoker, Dracula 4 pm EXTRA CREDIT OPTION: LECTURE BY DR. ALICE WEXLER, ACD 305	Chapters 21-25
3/26	Bram Stoker, Dracula (LAST DAY) MID-TERM REVIEW	Chapters 26-end
3/31	NO CLASS – SPRING BREAK	NO CLASS – SPRING BREAK
4/7	Illness, art and self-expression: Frida Kahlo	Take-home mid-term exam due.
4/9	What is death? Medical debates and poems about dying, death, and grief.	Rothman 417-425 Poetry on-line
4/14	Fiction about death, dying, and grief.	Chekhov, “Misery” (OL)
4/16	“	Carver, “A Small, Good Thing.”
4/21	Fiction about death, dying, and grief II.	Tolstoi, “The Death of Ivan Ilych.” (LONG! O-L)
4/23	“
4/27	Film Screening and Discussion – Wit PROMPTS FOR PAPER 3 DISTRIBUTED	Donne, “Death, Be Not Proud.” Abse, “In the Theatre.” (both on-line)
4/29	“
5/5	Movie and discussion –AI: Artificial Intelligence	Paper #3 Due.
5/7	“
5/12	REVIEW FOR FINAL EXAM
5/14	Final Exam in-class