Literature and Medicine, Wright State University (Boonshoft)

Perfect time to step-back and reflect upon the past, the present, and your future through a deep dive into some works of literature, carefully selected for their meaning in medicine. Through close reading and close listening, an intellectual and affective process with benefit to your future patients and your wellbeing, we will explore the human condition. Essay, poem, short story, short novel – we will use as catalyst to converse and write personal narrative from your observations, imaginings, memories, and anticipations. The physician-patient relationship and its core ethical groundings will be the center of gravity for us. The reading selections vary from year to year, but many will be by physician authors and poets such as William Carlos Williams, Abraham Verghese, Atul Gawande, Anton Chekov. If you are not a regular reader, writer – fear not, in two weeks you’ll transform for the better. For each session, you will write and share your work; others will attend. No, you will not be up all night writing term papers. Fourth-year elective only. This information has been collected for the Post-Discipline Online Syllabus Database. The database explores the use of literature by schools of professional education in North America. It forms part of a larger project titled Post-Discipline: Literature, Professionalism, and the Crisis of the Humanities, led by Dr Merve Emre with the assistance of Dr Hayley G. Toth. You can find more information about the project at https://postdiscipline.english.ox.ac.uk/. Data was collected and accurate in 2021/22.