Topics in Medical Humanities in East Asia: Illness, Healing and the Body in East Asia

EAST ASIAN LANGUAGES & CULTURES 5320

This seminar introduces students to the field of medical humanities with a focus on East Asia. After a brief methodological introduction to the field, the course will explore key aspects of the medical humanities in East Asia employing a chronological and thematic approach. From ancient China to the present, we will study and compare practices and discourses dealing with health and illness. Although the care of the body and the elimination of disease are today understood (and pursued) primarily within the domain of biomedicine, a look into the past, both remote and recent, reveals the constant intersection between the contemporary categories of "religion" and "medicine." The analysis of the practices and ideas of doctors, patients, and laypeople on what causes illness and how healing works will lead us to engage with some of the great traditions of East Asia, in particular what is today known as "traditional Chinese medicine" (or TCM), and Buddhism; and, in more recent times, with the medical technologies introduced from Europe and North-America. We will read selected primary sources and study important works of secondary literature to understand how these traditions have articulated notions of the body, health, and healing at different times and in different geographical contexts, and how they interacted with, influenced or criticized one another. This course is not meant as a comprehensive survey on health and medicine in East Asia, but rather as an introduction to selected themes and historical moments; therefore, it assumes some familiarity with the history and cultures of East Asia. There will be, however, mini-lectures and additional readings to provide additional context for those who might need it. All readings are in English, and no knowledge of any East Asian language is required, but graduate students will be encouraged to also work on primary or secondary sources in their areas of expertise. Undergraduates enroll in the 400-level section; 500-level s
Course Attributes: EN H; BU Hum; BU IS; AS HUM; AS LCD; FA HUM; AR HUM

Section 01

Topics in Medical Humanities in East Asia: Illness, Healing and the Body in East Asia - 01
INSTRUCTOR: Poletto
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