Narratives: Death, Living, Caring at the End of Life, Columbia University

Death and dying, like birth and birthing, are medical events in modern society. Most of us end life as we began it—in the hospital, with “strangers at the bedside,” as David Rothman writes, and often as cyborgs imbedded with machinery that externalizes even as it embodies life itself. Is it indeed possible to be part of this medicalization process and yet understand and connect with dying and death from within the experience of the person? The intention of the course is to bring students to a deeper understanding of their own connection to death and dying, to a stronger connection to the experience of dying for dying people, and to a more caring sensitivity to those who care for others at the end of life. While we live we are the subject: our lives unfold in stories and are connected to others through narrative. By using narrative to better understand our own feelings toward death and dying, as well as connecting to the experience of others, we become better clinicians and more effective caregivers. The course explores the meaning of death and its cultural construction in western and non-western societies; the definitions of death and the place of the individual at the intersection of physiological, technological, legal, and philosophical interpretations; and the experience of death in the personal and in the public spheres. We use narratives by patients, families, caregivers, and clinicians in different media to explore these dimensions, as well as using secondary sources built on narrative and narrative analysis. 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.