Literature Medicine

Literature and Medicine seeks to present health as a contested term with a continually evolving set of principles and meanings. The nature, causes, and meaning of states of health and sickness is determined not only by physical symptoms but influenced by class, gender, and race, and is perceived differently by patients, practitioners, and policy-makers. Twentieth-century British authors such as Ian McEwan, A.S. Byatt, Ali Smith, James Kelman, David Lodge, and Will Self offer a cultural history of the present that is united by a particular concern with the myths and metaphors that contribute to our under-standing of health and sickness. Accordingly Literature and Medicine guides students through a series of literary texts that engage with contemporary issues of health and sickness and signal the inadequacy of any understanding of health that is not culturally, historically, and geographically situated. Literature and Medicine uncovers the ways in which twentieth-century British authors urge us to reclaim the narrative of the individual sick person and reconsider what it means to be healthy and what it means to be sick in the twenty-first century. Sociological readings on the history and philosophy of medicine that signal the inadequa-cy of any understanding of health that is not culturally, historically and geographically sit-uated. Novels concerned with the myths and metaphors that contribute to our understanding of health and sickness. Material from the emergent field of the medical humanities including anthropology and cultural studies, literature and applied linguistics, performing arts, visual art, and creative practices with a focus on healing and recovery. Supplementary material on approaches to delivering humanities into healthcare and the requirement for practice based evidence.