Lit 3: Lit of Death and Dying
Dr. Les WRIGHT Office: 617 928 7314 WED 6‑9 PM
Office: ATB 240 Email: lwright@mountida.edu Spring 2005
HT 315 The Literature of Death and Dying 3 credits
Course Description
This course focuses on how we conceptualize and give meaning to death in autobiography, fiction, history, and film. The death of the individual is considered from a variety of cultural and historical perspectives. The question of what constitutes good death and bad death is explored in the context of “horrendous death” – modern war, the Holocaust, nuclear winter, and AIDS. The dynamics of loss and grieving will be of value to both those who work with clients who are dying or suffering loss and to those seeking to examine personal experiences or values.
Required Texts
Death of Ivan Ilych, Tolstoy The Bell Jar, Plath
Intoxicated by My Illness, Broyard Night, Wiesel
Hiroshima, Hersey Regeneration, Barker
As We Are Now, Sarton Crime and Punishment, Dostoevsky
Johnny Got His Gun, Trumbo Death in Venice, Mann
Illness as Metaphor; AIDS & Its Metaphors, Sontag
Against Forgetting, Forché
Grim Reader, Spiegel
Topics
The course is divided into four topics: I. Defining Death, II. Involuntary Death, III. Willful Death, and IV. Survivorship. Various disciplinary concerns (philosophy, aesthetics, psychology, literary analysis, and sociology) will be examined through selected texts covering a broad range of current issues, cultural and ethical values.
Teaching Procedures
Weekly film screenings, lectures, and in-class discussions of assigned readings will be supplemented through weekly student journal and/or written assignments. The tests and papers in this course will require the student to synthesize materials she or he has become familiar with in class lectures and presentations.
Instructional Objectives
To introduce the student to the historical development of the social meanings of death, dying, trauma, and loss. To increase the student’s ability to communicate clearly and effectively, to access relevant information, to work independently and in a group, and to instill leadership skills, such as initiative, risk-taking, and independent decision-making, through involvement with the course. To bring the student to infer, deduce, extrapolate, and draw complex connections between the student’s world, contemporary society, the broader cultural and historical context, and the realm of humanities scholarship.
Grading and Attendance *
Students are required to attend all classes. This course meets once a week for 150 minutes. Therefore, only one class session may be missed. A total of two 150-minute absences, for any reason, will result without exception in a final grade of F for the course. Failure to hand in the critical paper will also result in an automatic F for the course. Student grades will be based on the following:
| 25% | 20% | 30% | 25% |
| Book Report 1 5%
Book Report 2 5% Book Report 3 5% Journaling (x 2) 10% |
Research Paper
word count: 3,000-3,500 words |
Test 1 15%
Test 2 15% |
Weekly Quiz (x 10) 15%
Attendance 10% |
| NOTE: All students are expected to remain in class for the complete duration of all in-class screenings. This is reflected both in attendance and in weekly quizzes. | |||
There are numerous support facilities and opportunities at Mount Ida, including a tutoring program and student-initiated meetings with the instructor. When all avenues have been exhausted, students unable to maintain minimum academic performance will be encouraged to withdraw from the course.
Dr. Les WRIGHT Office: 617.928.47314 Mount Ida College
Office: ATB 240 email: lwright@mountida.edu Spring 2005
HT 315 The Literature of Death and Dying: 3 credits
Trauma, Loss, and Recovery
| [lecture topic] | [in-class screening] | [homework for next class] |
| WEEK 1 What Death Means | ||
|
Death: The Trip of a Lifetime
I & IV |
The Death of Ivan Ilych
Leo Tolstoy |
| WEEK 2 How Death Means | ||
|
Truly, Madly Deeply | Intoxicated By My Illness, Broyard
On the Beach , N. Shute A Grief Observed, C.S. Lewis |
| WEEK 3 Conscious Dying | ||
|
Shadowlands | Crime and Punishment, F. Dostoevsky In Cold Blood, T. Capote |
| WEEK 4 Murder | ||
|
In Cold Blood | .”Part 6: A Healthy Distance,” Grim Reader 400-416
The Monster Show, D. Skal |
| TEST 1 | ||
| WEEK 5 Gallows Humor and Gothic Horror | ||
|
Murder By Death | The Bell Jar, S. Plath
‘night, Mother, Norman |
| WEEK 6 & 7 | ||
| Suicide | ||
|
The Bell Jar | As We Are Now, May Sarton |
| WEEK 8 Youth and Age | ||
|
Harold and Maude | Johnny Got His Gun, D. Trumbull
Regeneration, P. Barker |
| WEEK 9 War: Modern Warfare | ||
|
In Country | Night, E. Wiesel
Man’s Search for Meaning, |
| TEST 2 | ||
| WEEK 10 Holocaust, Trauma, and Survival | ||
|
The Pawnbroker | Hiroshima, J. Hersey
A Canticle for Leibowitz, W. Miller |
| WEEK 11 & 12 | ||
| Nuclear Holocaust and the Search for Meaning | ||
|
Hiroshima, mon amour | Death in Venice, T. Mann
When Plague Strikes, Giblin |
| WEEK 13 The Black Death | ||
|
Seventh Seal | AIDS and Its Metaphors, Sontag |
| WEEK 14 AIDS | ||
| AIDS and Its Metaphors, Sontag
“Stigma,” Quam |
Silverlake Life | |
| WEEK 15 WMD and Terrorism & TEST 3 DUE | ||
| After 28 Days | ||
| Test 1 | Book Report 1 | Journaling (x 2) |
| Test 2 | Book Report 2 | |
| Test 3 | Book Report 3 | Research Paper due: |
| MON, MAY 16, 2005 | ||
