William Hogarth, "Scholars at a Lecture, or Daur Vaccum"
(1736/7)
Interdsciplinary Courses Sponsored by ECS at U of S
1997–98 and 2001–02: English 802.6/History 899.6
STUDIES IN LITERARY & CULTURAL HISTORY:
Cultural Studies of the Body: Science and Medicine in English Literature,
1660–1815
Larry Stewart (History), Ray Stephanson (English)
Course Description: This class is intended as a research
seminar in the private experience of the body and the public culture
of science, medicine, and literature. The purpose is to bring together
graduate students from the departments of English and History in
an interdisciplinary examination of the ways in which new scientific
and medical approaches to the body intersected with literary versions
of human embodiment. We will investigate several body "systems"—anatomical
and physiological, sexual, racial, legal, etc.—in a variety
of primary materials, exploring the complex interrelationship with
epistemological models, medical practice, gender, theories of human
nature, institutional paradigms (the madhouse, hospital, prison),
class, and literary experimentation. Each week students will be
asked to read selected literary texts in conjunction with scientific,
medical, or other historical materials; we hope students will learn
something about the "other" discipline and its methodologies.
2000–01: English 499.6
Course Description: Early modern London was a world of remarkable
social and artistic dynamism. This cross-listed, team-taught course
brings social history and literary criticism to bear on the lives
and works of Londoners through court records, newspapers, letters,
diaries, plays, poems, and novels (some obscure, some famous), as
well as current scholarship.
The approach is interdisciplinary. The goal is to provide all parties
with a more holistic understanding of early modern London society
than either discipline can offer in isolation. Students of literature
will acquire skills in historical research, and students of history
will develop tools for textual analysis.
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