|
Teacher
|
FRANCESCHINI STEFANO
(syllabus)
This course focuses on the relationship between narrative medicine and medical prose writing (both fiction and non-fiction) in contemporary American literature. Through a close critical reading of Gain by Richard Powers (1998), The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion (2005), and Breathe by Joyce Carol Oates (2021), students will analyze the strategies through which these authors give voice to the fragile and compelling relationship between selfhood, narrative, and illness.
Relying on narrative medicine as its primary methodological framework, the course will focus predominantly on the theoretical reflections of Rita Charon and other scholars in the field of narrative medicine. In addition to these foundational texts, students will engage with a range of critical sources that will further guide their interpretation of the selected works, particularly with regard to the relationship between patient, family member, and pathology.
This selection of texts enables a preliminary yet sufficiently comprehensive exploration of how literature — with particular attention to prose writing — conveys the complex system of emotions involved in the experience and management of illness. Students will therefore be encouraged to consider literature not merely as a passive technology for recording the lived experiences of characters and the dynamics in which they are embedded, but also as a discourse that foregrounds narrative as a complementary space of care capable of accompanying and enriching the patient’s clinical experience.
(reference books)
FONTI PRIMARIE
• Richard Powers, Gain (1998, any edition)
• Joan Didion, The Year of Magical Thinking (2005, any edition)
• Joyce Carol Oates, Breathe (2021, any edition)
|
Università Roma Tre