Narrative Ethics, Columbia University

From Frankenstein to AI, from Brave New World to Gattaca—this course draws upon literature, film and criticism to explore the ways in which popular culture both reflects and informs our understanding of bioethics. We will investigate the reciprocity between narrative—understood as the form and means of storytelling—and ethics, particularly in the domain of illness, bioethics, and medical practice. Topics include superheroes and disability studies; the Outbreak narrative in literature, film, and current events; the ethics of clinician writing, and the thematic connections between contemporary debates concerning vaccination and the story of Dracula. This course contributes to the Master of Science in Narrative Medicine Program. 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.