Syllabus

Literature and Medicine: Humanities at the Heart of Health Care 

SYLLABUS

Veterans Administration Hospital - Durham, NC - February - June 2011

Facilitator: Todd Savitt

Hospital Liaison: Theresa Yuschok

Humanities Council Liaison: Donovan McKnight

Location: Durham VA Hospital

Time and Place: Wednesdays, 5:00 – 7:00 PM

Sponsors: North Carolina Humanities Council, Maine Humanities Council, Durham VA

Session 1:  February 2 – Patients

Anatole Broyard, “Doctor, Talk to Me” (1990), reprinted from The New York Times Magazine in Richard Reynolds and John Stone, eds., On Doctoring: Stories, Poems, Essays, new revised and expanded third edition (New York, Simon & Schuster:1991, 1993, 2001), 166-172. (essay, memoir)

William Carlos Williams, “The Girl With a Pimply Face” (1938), reprinted in Echoes, 192-201. (short story)

Jay Baruch, “Laceration Repair” (2007) in Baruch, Fourteen Stories: Doctors, Patients, and Other Strangers (Kent, Ohio: The Kent State University Press, 2007), 15-18. (short story)

Richard Selzer, “Four Appointments With the Discus Thrower” (1979), reprinted in Selzer, The Doctor Stories (New York: Picador USA, 1998), 227-230. (short story)

Richard Selzer, “Tillim” (1979), reprinted in Selzer, The Doctor Stories (New York: Picador USA, 1998), 172-175. (short story)

 Session 2:  March 2 – Caregivers

 Atul Gawande, “The Case of the Red Leg,” in Gawande, Complications: A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science (New York: Picador, 2002), 228-252. (essay)

Mikhail Bulgakov, “The Steel Windpipe” (1925-27), from Bulgakov, A Country Doctor’s Notebook, reprinted in On Doctoring, 78-85. (short story)

David Watts, “The Chart in the Window,” “Silence Knows the Right Questions,” and “One Cancer Cell” (2009), in Watts, The Orange Wire Problem and Other Tales From the Doctor’s Office (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2009), 40-44, 53-56, 57-60. (anecdotal essays)

Adam Haslett, “The Good Doctor” (2002), in Haslett, You Are Not a Stranger Here (New York: Doubleday, 2002), 24-47.

 Session 3: April 6 – Death and Dying                                             

Leo Tolstoy, The Death of Ivan Ilych (1886). (novella)

Richard Selzer, “Mercy” (1982), reprinted in Selzer, The Doctor Stories (New York: Picador USA, 1998), 142-146. (short story)

Jeanne Bryner, “Blue Lace Socks” (1995), in Cortney Davis & Judy Schaefer, eds., Between the Heartbeats: Poetry & Prose by Nurses (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1995), 32. (poem)

Maya Angelou, “The Last Decision” (1983), reprinted in On Doctoring, 234. (poem)

Patrick Clary, “Five Tasks Taught By Hospice Nurses” (2006), in Clary, Dying For Beginners (Big Pine, California: Lost Borders Press, 2006). (poem)

 Session 4: April 20 – The Experience of War

Pearl Buck, “The Enemy” (1942), Harper’s Magazine, reprinted in Phyllis and Albert Blaustein, eds., Doctors’ Choice: Sixteen Stories about Doctors and Medicine (New York: Wilfred Funk, Inc., 1957), 40-59. (short story)

Richard Lovelace, “To Lucasta, On Going to the Wars” (1649), reprinted in Echoes, 118.

Frank O’Connor, “My Oedipus Complex” (1950), reprinted in Echoes, 144-152. (short story)

Andre Dubus, “Out of the Snow” (1995), in Dubus, Dancing After Hours (New York: Alfred A Knopf, 1995), reprinted in Echoes, 28-39.  (short story)

Raymond Carver, “Where I’m Calling From” (1989), reprinted in Echoes, 10-21.

 Session 5: May 4 – Bias and Stereotyping

William Carlos Williams, “A Face of Stone” (1938), reprinted in Robert Coles, comp., William Carlos Williams: The Doctor Stories (New York:  New Directions, 1984), 78-87.  (short story)

Eileen Pollack, “Milk” (1994), reprinted in Imagine What It’s Like, 111-125. (short story)

Wanda Coleman, “Slave Driver” (2007), reprinted in Echoes, 22-27. (short story)

Irvin D. Yalom, “Fat Lady” (1989), in Yalom, Love’s Executioner and Other Tales of    Psychotherapy (New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1989), 87-117. (anecdotal essay)

Jay Baruch, “Road Test” (2007), in Baruch, Fourteen Stories, 54-59. (short story)

 Session 6: June 1 – Family and Friends

Amy Bloom, “Silver Water” (1993), in Bloom, Come to Me (New York: Harper-Collins, 1993), 87-98.

Raymond Carver, “A Small Good Thing” (1989), in Carver, Cathedral: Stories (New York: Random House, 1989), 59-89.  (short story)

Richard Selzer, “Tube Feeding” (1979), reprinted in Selzer, The Doctor Stories (New York:  Picador USA, 1998), 108-113.  (short story)