Course Description
“The Rhetorics of Health and Illness” explores the role of language in constructing, experiencing, treating, and understanding the states we call “health” and “illness.” We will ask questions like: Why do we fight cancer but mend broken bones? When (and how) do some experiences (sadness, hunger) become symptoms of disease? Why do doctors ask where it hurts rather than when or how? Is there a difference between saying that a patient is “med compliant” and that she has “taken her medicines”? Are men less likely to complain of emotional ailments than women? Is there really a perfect chemical balance in the brain? What happens when your experience of illness doesn’t conform to the expected story of the disease? Whose authority is embedded in “patient information” materials? Are direct-to-consumer advertising campaigns educational? Can drugs really “give you your self back”?
This semester, we will use depression – a mental illness to which we have access primarily through language (there is no physical test that can confirm its presence or absence) – as a case study, though our readings and discussions will cover a broad range of illnesses (and healthy states). In general, this course asks what role rhetoric (broadly, the art of persuasion) plays in our conceptions of health and illness. To answer this question, we will highlight four primary areas of rhetorical research: explorations of metaphors and figurative language; analyses of narrative practices; studies of linguistic/grammatical and discursive structures; and considerations of physical exhibitions and public health campaigns. Taken together, our discussions will articulate the value of rhetorical analyses for future healthcare providers and for consumers of health and illness.
Course Objectives
- > To gain an understanding of rhetorical analyses as a set of research methods
- > To apply various forms of rhetorical and linguistic analysis to health and illness topics
- > To synthesize studies on the language(s) of health and illness and to evaluate their effectiveness
- > To develop and present (in oral and written form) a sustained argument about a rhetorical aspect of health and/or illness
Course Texts
- > Gwyn, Richard. Communicating Health and Illness. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 2002. [ISBN: 0-7619-6475-4]
- > Slater, Lauren. Prozac Diary. NY: Penguin Books, 1999. [ISBN: 0-14-026394-2]
- > Sontag, Susan. Illness As Metaphor and AIDS and Its Metaphors. NY: Anchor Books, 1990. [ISBN: 0-385-26705-3]
- > Selected articles and excerpts.
- > Heifferon, Barbara. Writing in the Health Professions. NY: Pearson/Longman, 2005. [ISBN: 0-321-10527-3] (Note: This text is required for students enrolled in ENGL 479, but optional for those enrolled in ENGL 379)
Work Commitments
- > Regular, active class preparation and participation (including occasional exercises or small projects, e.g., collecting and transcribing an illness narrative)
- > 5 critical response papers (2-4 pages, double-spaced)
- > Midtern Research Question/Proposal (5-7 pages, double-spaced)
- > Final Research Paper/Project (10-15 pages, double-spaced)
Creative Option: Curating & Analyzing an exhibit for the Dittrick Medical Museum
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