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Personal Voice in Medicine and Ethics cancelled

ENGL 135.304
instructor(s):
W 2-5:00

This special section of English 135 is designed for those interested in writing creative non-fiction (from personal reflection to researched essay and argumentation) about the experience of illness. Emphasis will be threefold: developing a voice and structure appropriate for an essay's purpose; adapting the arts of imaginative writers to non-fiction; and writing for a range of readers. We will read as models and points of departure essays by physician-writers (perhaps Lewis Thomas, Richard Selzer, William Carlos Williams) and by "wounded storytellers," who have like Arthur Frank (whose phrase I'm borrowing) brilliantly reflected on being ill or disabled (maybe Virginia Woolf, William Styron, Nancy Mairs, Andre Dubus, Reynolds Price). We will also read and write about medical ethics and consider the responsibility of writing about illness and medicine. Students are invited to recommend, individually and collectively, some of the readings and writing topics. Selected weekly writing will be revised. Grade will be based on a final portfolio. Permit required. E-mail questions to caschill@english.

fulfills requirements