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Aug 30, 2025
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Fall 2025 Health Sciences Catalog
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HCB 510 - Literature, Compassion, and Medical Care
How does literature help us understand the nature of human illness and suffering? Can written works of art, ancient and contemporary, that depict moments of compassion and compassionate acts lay bare the moral, spiritual, psychological, and physical reality of suffering? There is a long association between literature and medicine, from the viewpoint of physician-writers, such as Anton Checkov and William Carlos Williams, whose literary skills have eclipsed their medical backgrounds. Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson were the creations of a physician-writer, Arthur Conan Doyle. Physicians portrayed in literature, such as Dr. Bernard Rieux, in Albert Camus The Plague, have also explored the relationship between patient and doctor, the nature of healing. This semester-long course will study these relationships through reading of poetry, drama, fiction, memoir, and essay and reflect on the nature of suffering, the intrinsic human need for compassion, and the implications for health and healing.
3 credits
Grading Letter graded (A, A-, B+, etc.)
Offered Offered in Fall
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