ENGL 53.49 Graphic Medicine

What does sickness look like? What do personal picture-stories of illness and recovery tell us that traditional medical narratives cannot? In this course, students will read graphic narratives depicting first-hand experiences of physical (dis)ability, mental illness, disease, and neurodivergence. Discussion and readings will explore autobiography, word-image theories and comics analysis, as well as competing conceptions of illness and recovery within and across primary texts. Other readings will include scholarship on the ethics of storytelling and patient-centered perspectives on medicine. Authors may include David B., Ellen Forney, Art Spiegelman, Cece Bell, Harvey Pekar, Frank Miller, and others.

Cross Listed Courses

COLT 49.09

Degree Requirement Attributes

Dist:LIT; WCult:W

The Timetable of Class Meetings contains the most up-to-date information about a course. It includes not only the meeting time and instructor, but also its official distributive and/or world culture designation. This information supersedes any information you may see elsewhere, to include what may appear in this ORC/Catalog or on a department/program website. Note that course attributes may change term to term therefore those in effect are those (only) during the term in which you enroll in the course.

Department-Specific Course Categories

Course Group III