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Faculty Course: Literature and medicine

  • Number of credits 7.5 credits
  • Level Master’s level
  • Study form Web-based (online)
  • Starting Spring Term 2025

About the course

Do poets make better doctors? Is literature healthy? Should literary characters be diagnosed? This course explores the relationship of literature and medicine and questions such as these by reading and discussing a range of literary and theoretical texts.

In "On Being Ill," Virginia Woolf wrote that "English, which can express the thoughts of Hamlet and the tragedy of Lear, has no words for the shiver and the headache. . . . let a sufferer try to describe a pain in his head to a doctor and language at once runs dry." Yet illness narratives are now an established literary genre. Furthermore, some argue that knowledge of literature and narrative help doctors understand their patients and their symptoms better. This course will explore a range of issues involved in the intersection of literature and medicine. We will look at, for example, the use of literature in the study and practice of medicine and medical treatment, what is at stake in diagnosing literary characters, and the kinds of literary forms illness has shaped.

The medium of instruction is English.

Application and eligibility

Faculty Course: Literature and medicine, 7.5 credits

Det finns inga tidigare terminer för kursen Spring Term 2025 Det finns inga senare terminer för kursen

Starts

20 January 2025

Ends

24 March 2025

Study location

Varied

Language

English

Type of studies

Mixed, 50%, Distance

Number of mandatory meetings

No mandatory meetings.

Number of other meetings

None

Outline for distance course

The medium of instruction is English. All communication is via the course learning platform. The course includes a number of obligatory seminars via internet. Access to a computer with broadband internet connection is required for participating in and completing the course tasks. For information on technical requirements, see “Technical Requirements for Online Courses” https://www.umu.se/student/sprakstudier/dokument

Required Knowledge

one of the following alternatives:
1) Bachelor's degree (180 credits)
2) 90 university credits, of which at least 7,5 credits must come from an independent project, or equivalent qualifications

Proficiency in English equivalent to Swedish upper secondary course English B/6.

Entry requirements

Selection

Academic credits

Application code

UMU-15902

Application

Application deadline was 15 October 2024. Please note: This second application round is intended only for EU/EEA/Swiss citizens. Submit a late application at Universityadmissions.se.

Application and tuition fees

As a citizen of a country outside the European Union (EU), the European Economic Area (EEA) or Switzerland, you are required to pay application and tuition fees for studies at Umeå University.

Application fee

SEK 900

Tuition fee, first instalment

SEK 11,625

Total fee

SEK 11,625

Contact us

Please be aware that the University is a public authority and that what you write here can be included in an official document. Therefore, be careful if you are writing about sensitive or personal matters in this contact form. If you have such an enquiry, please call us instead. All data will be treated in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation.

Course is given by
Department for Language Studies