Maladies/Miracle Cures 19C Fr

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

This course examines the portrayals of disease, medicine, and public health in major nineteenth-century French novels. France was the recognized leader in nineteenth-century medicine; it is also the nation whose literature deals most luridly with themes of disease and recovery. In this class, we will pay attention to the roles of class, gender, race, and religion in modern thinking about health and illness. We will think critically about health care in relation to individual responsibilities, as well as in relation to income inequality and questions of human rights.