Gender, Sexuality, and Literature (361-0-20)

Topic

Gender, Illness & Disability

Instructors

Michaela Filia Corning-Myers

Meeting Info

Kresge Centennial Hall 3-410: Tues, Thurs 11:00AM - 12:20PM

Overview of class

The 2000s and 2010s saw a rush of narratives that centered around one key subject: the cancer-afflicted girl. From the "dying angel" in A Walk to Remember, to John Green's infamous novel, The Fault in Our Stars, an obsession with the spunky sick girl dominated American culture. Yet while there seem to be sick girls everywhere, we also recognize that there is a gender gap in medical care quality. Not only do doctors screen for different disorders based on perceived gender, but also affected is the degree to which a patient's concerns and pain are taken seriously. This class will look at stories about ill and disabled characters to ask a wide range of questions about their relationship with gender. We will start in the nineteenth century, when questions of gender and illness rose to the cultural zeitgeist, and then investigate how these same questions echo in contemporary films and texts. Throughout the course, we will return to the question, what is it about the gendered ailing body that keeps us intrigued?

To develop a chronology of illness, disability, and gender in literature, we will use movies like Moulin Rouge! and The Fault in Our Stars, and texts like "The Yellow Wall-paper," Sontag's Illness as Metaphor, and writing by Barbara Ehrenreich. Some topics of particular focus include tuberculosis, hypochondria, STIs, environmental illness, and cardiac failure.

Class Materials (Required)

Provided in Canvas

Class Attributes

Advanced Expression
Literature and Arts Foundational Discipline
Literature & Fine Arts Distro Area