ENG 298 - Disability, Literature and Medicine

What does race have to do with ability and disability? How did the policies of empire shape the practices of medicine? How did the science of race shape the medical treatment of differently abled bodies and minds? This course will examine the scientific discourses of race developed over the colonial encounter from the Enlightenment through the nineteenth century, alongside the medical discourses of diagnosis and care for people with mental and physical disabilities. Using fiction and poetry contextualize our scientific reading, we will ask how race and disability were co-constituted in the nineteenth century imaginary, and how this legacy shapes our present. This course fulfils the pre-1865 requirement for the English major.

Credits 4

Notes
From time to time, departments design a new course to be offered either on a one-time basis or an experimental basis before deciding whether to make it a regular part of the curriculum.

Compass Attributes
Humanities