The Many Meanings of Illness

Instructor: Professor Ralph A. Sorensen
               Department of Biology

What does it mean to be ill? More pointedly, what does becoming ill make
us? Do we become pitiable victims? Heroic sufferers? Butts of divine whimsy? Commodities for the medical establishment? Members of a new community of fellow sufferers? Newly alert to the joy of living? Or merely ill, a state all of us experience and most will someday experience to the point of death. Through films and illness narratives (fiction and non-fiction) students will explore the many dimensions of being ill. Discussion and writing topics will consider some of the emotional, social, cultural, and ethical dimensions of illness. The biological bases of disease will be touched on only lightly to give students an adequate background to understand the diseases considered.