FREN 4820

Madness, Literature and Medicine

Course Description

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2021-2022.

In the XIXe century, both literature and medicine shaped the birth of the idea of the psyche.  A new medical discipline like psychiatry (at that ime called "alienism") considered the pathologies of the soul at the same time as romantic authors investigated the misfortunes and sufferings of the individual in modern society.  Clinical cases (Charcot, Freud) could be read like novels and scientific theories similarly fed fictions (Maupassant, Zola, etc.).  This course will explore these reciprocal influences between literature and medicine in France through medical case studies and fiction, taking into account both classical texts and the most recent researh.  At the intersection between madness, psychiatry, literature, cultural history and narrative theory, it raises questions about personal identities and the birth of modern subjectivities.

When Offered Spring.

Prerequisites/Corequisites Prerequisite: fluency in French.

Breadth Requirement (HB)
Distribution Category (LA-AS, ALC-AS)
Language Requirement Satisfies Option 1.

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