ENGL 487 - Literary Studies in Health, Illness, and Aging (3 credits)

(Prereq: one literature class at the 200 level or above or permission of the instructor) This course will offer students an opportunity to read, think, and write about literary texts that engage with the implications of human embodiment. Readings and thematic focus will vary by semester, and may incorporate a range of geographical locations, historical periods, and literary genres. Through reading and discussion students will consider how categories like health and illness, youth and age, or ability and disability are depicted and sometimes challenged in literary texts, and will examine how illness or disability might affect the constitution of identity, enabling new kinds of stories and new ways of telling them. Alternating F, S.