Fall 2005 Prof.

Pamela Gossin
Office: JO: 5.304 Home Phone: 405-360-2958 (before 10 pm)
Office Phone: 972- 883-2071 Office Hours: R 1:30 - 3pm, W + F. by appt.
Email: psgossin@utdallas.edu

HUMA 3300 Reading and Writing Texts

Nature, Medicine and Science
F 12:30 - 3:15 pm JO 4.102

In this course we will explore concepts of nature through various forms of “texts,” including: nature writing, nature
poetry, science fiction, personal essays, medical and scientific fiction and nonfiction, graphic novels, and various forms of the
visual arts (as well as actual plants, planets, animals and human bodies). We will consider various ways in which “nature” and
the natural environment have been configured as “books” or “texts” depicting stories of prehistoric creatures, human history,
culture and technology. We will consider many of the complex ethical issues that arise from new discoveries in the natural
world, medicine and the sciences. We will discuss various ways in which “nature” writing is “artful” as well as “scientific.” We
will learn a variety of ways to “read” and “write” about nature and human nature. We will learn to identify rhetorical strategies
(persuasive techniques), practice troubleshooting our own drafts, and enhance our understanding and use of creative writing
techniques

Some of the questions we will explore include: How have human beings developed an understanding of the natural
world, including the worlds of medical and scientific ways of knowing about life (human and otherwise)? How do poets,
physicians and scientists combine thinking and feeling in their life’s work? Is medicine an art, a science, or an applied
technology? What kinds of issues will face us as living organisms in an increasingly medicalized body, in an increasingly
scientific and technological society? How can the ancient “technologies” of reading and writing adapt to these changes and
empower us to meet such challenges ethically and aesthetically ?

The course format will be that of a “modified writing workshop” – primarily discussion with a few descriptive or
informative mini-lectures, in-class activities, small-group work and videos, including a special unit on animated represen-tations
of nature and science. We will work on Medical School / Graduate School “personal statements” as one of our writing
projects.

* * * This course counts toward the minor in Medical and Scientific Humanities (MaSH) * * *

GRADING CRITERIA:
1/3rd: “A&P”: Attendance and Participation (includes discussion, in-class writing, homework, extra credit & quizzes)
* NOTE: Please give your professor “courtesy” notice of any absences due to illness, emergency prior to missing class.
No credit will be given for late assignments without such prior notice.
1/3rd: Mid-term (in-class essay and objective exam)
1/3rd: Final formal paper, 5-7 pp, analysis and interpretation + one 5-10 min. in-class summary (averaged)

EXTRA CREDIT: Students may earn extra credit toward their A&P grade in the following ways:
1. Reading and/or Vocabulary journal: may be turned in at end of course for extra credit.
2. Extra Credit reading: 2-3 pp paper on “extra credit” reading or videos (get prof’s prior approval)
3. Personal “field-trips” to natural locations (discuss with prof first)
* NOTE: All extra credit reports need to address these two main issues:
 1) What did you learn about the definition of “nature” and the “natural” from the activity? IE: how was nature defined? 2)
How did the activity/experience relate to our course themes / discussions / readings?
REQUIRED BOOKS:
1) Reading the Environment (RE, nature writing anthology), ed. Melissa Walker, Norton, 1994
2) Science and the Human Spirit (SHS) ed. Fred White, Wadsworth, 1989 (available for purchase in a xerox packet)
3) Miyazaki, Hayao, Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind (graphic novel) -- (VIZ Perfection Collection vol.1, or vols.1&2 of the
new ed. are both ok)
4) A Life in Medicine: A Literary Anthology (LM) Robert Coles, ed. et al, New Press, 2003.
5) Each student is REQUIRED to purchase 1 (ONE) of the following options (for your formal paper):
Lewis Thomas, Lives of a Cell, Penguin, 1995
Richard Selzer, Mortal Lessons: Notes on the Art of Surgery, Harcourt, 1996
Loren Eiseley, The Immense Journey, Vintage
Evelyn Fox Keller, A Feeling for the Organism, Times Books, 1984
Eva Salber, The Mind is Not the Heart: Recollections of a Woman Physician, Duke, 1989
Diane Ackerman, Natural History of the Senses, Vintage, 1991

RECOMMENDED TEXTS: For students interested in more in-depth reading and critical theories regarding the relationship
of literature and medicine and/or humanistic medical education. You may read any of these for EXTRA CREDIT.

The Healing Arts: An Oxford Illustrated Anthology, Robin Downie, ed. Oxford, 2000
Stories Matter: The Role of Narrative in Medical Ethics, Rita Charon, ed. Brunner-Routledge, 2002
Stories and their Limits: Narrative Approaches to Bioethics, Hilde Lindemann Nelson, ed. Routledge, 1997
John Fox, Poetic Medicine: The Healing Art of Poem-Making, Putnam, 1997
Medicine: A Treasury of Art and Literature, A. Carmichael and R. Ratzan, eds., Hugh Lauter Levin Assoc, 1991
Julie Hansen et al, The Physician’s Art: Representations of Art and Medicine, Duke, 2000
Anne Hunsaker Hawkins, Teaching Literature and Medicine, MLA, 2000

PLAGIARISM POLICY
Any student found guilty of plagiarism (using another person’s thoughts, words, ideas, terminology etc. without
properly acknowledging them with footnotes, endnotes, or parenthetically in the text with a bibliography) will be
subject to UTD’s disciplinary policies and procedures, including, but not limited to, failing this course. See the
university’s student code, MLA style sheet or Chicago Manual of Style for more information.

CLASS PHILOSOPHY
In accordance with university policy, this is a drug-free, alcohol-free, smoke-free, barrier-free classroom. In the
interests of promoting a comfortable learning environment, all students and the professor pledge to respectfully
consider the expression of ideas and opinions by others regardless of political, philosophical, religious, intellectual,
cultural, racial, generational or gender differences.
 CLASS CALENDAR:

* Have all readings listed under a particular class day, read FOR that class day’s discussion.*

UNIT 1: READING AND WRITING NATURE

Wk 1: F. August 19:
A: Introduction to the course: class cards; syllabus; course objectives and themes. Reading & vocabulary journals.
B: In-class reading and discussion: The Human-Nature Interface: Loren Eiseley, “Judgment of the Birds” SHS, (xerox handout,
pp. 300-309)

Wk 2: F. August 26: Human Encounters with Nature: Descriptive and Rhetorical “Texts”
A: Discuss reading: Thoreau, RE (Reading the Environment): pp.41-44; Dillard and Lopez, SHS (Science and the
Human Spirit): pp. 311-313 and 326-333; The Genesis War, SHS: pp.210-221 and Extraterrestrial Life, SHS:
pp.142-160
B: Thomas Moran video (fill out study sheet and hand-in for credit)

Wk. 3: F. Sept 2: Forms of Nature: “Sciencepoetry” / Science Fiction / Science Faction

* Homework (due in class today): Write a “science” or nature sonnet (14 lines, formal or informal)
A and B: Discuss reading: Whitman, Frost, Jeffers, Cedering, R.H.W. Dillard as in SHS: pp. 270-271; 287; 290; 335-339;
and Hawthorne, Poe, Clarke, and Selzer, SHS: pp.240-256; 258-266; 293-298; 315-324.

Wk 4: F. Sept. 9: “Romantic Views of Nature”

* Hand-in reading journals for today’s reading: Michael Pollan, “The Idea of a Garden,” RE (Reading the Environment)
191-201; Pam Houston, “A Blizzard Under Blue Sky,” RE 57-62; Donald Walker, “A Logger's Story,” RE
115-117; Alice Walker, “The Place Where I was Born,” RE 94-98; Sarah Orne Jewett, “A White Heron,” RE
351-359; Jill Ker Conway, “The West,” RE 106-112; Gretel Ehrlich, “About Men,” RE 112-115
A and B: VIDEO and discussion: Willa Cather, “O Pioneers.” Note and record how the natural environment of the Great
Plains is used as scene setting, plot device, symbol and in relation to individual characters (1-2 pp in-class)

Wk 5: F. Sept. 16: “Natural” Debates – Within and Without the Human Animal:
A: Discuss reading: Roderick Nash “Why Wilderness,” RE 74-83; Edward Abbey, “Serpents of Paradise,” RE 51-57; Aldo
Leopold, “Thinking Like a Mountain,” RE 49-51; John McPhee, “Los Angeles Against the Mountains,” RE 280-285;
E.O. Wilson, “Krakatau,” RE 185-191
B: Debate: Animal Rights, Genetic Engineering; Swenson and Wade, SHS: pp.174-188; 191-207; 340-343

Wk 6: F. Sept. 23: Imagining Future Nature I

A: Background and history of anime/manga (guest speaker)
B: Discuss reading: Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind (manga, graphic novel)

Wk 7: F. Sept 30: Imagining Future Nature II

A and B: VIDEO and discussion: Nausicaa (anime); go over EXAM format and expectations
Wk 8: F. Oct. 7: * MIDTERM EXAM * You will have 2 hours to complete the exam.

UNIT 3: READING AND WRITING HUMAN NATURE: MEDICINE as ART & SCIENCE

Wk 9: F. Oct. 14:

A and B: Discuss reading: from A Life in Medicine (LM): Preface, Introduction and Part One: Physicians Must be
Altruistic, pp. xv-65

Wk 10: F. Oct. 21:

A: Discuss reading: from LM: Part Two: Physicians Must be Knowledgeable, pp. 66-138

B: Discuss Women in Science and Medicine [xerox handout or on library reserve] and VIDEO from “Discovering Women”
series

Wk 11: F. Oct 28:

* “History of Science” Extra Credit Costume Contest

A and B: Discuss reading from LM: Part Three: Physicians Must be Skillful, pp. 139-240

Wk 12: F. Nov. 4:

A: Discuss reading from LM: Part Four: Physicians Must be Dutiful, pp. 241-end
B: Video: TBA

Wk 13: F. Nov. 11: Writing Workshop

* PERSONAL STATEMENTS and analytical/interpretative papers – BRING thesis paragraphs and outlines

Wk 14: F. Nov. 18: STUDENT PAPER PRESENTATION SUMMARIES + teaching evaluations

* THANKSGIVING BREAK * NO CLASS

Wk 15: F. Dec. 2: FINISH UP STUDENT PAPER SUMMARIES (meet in regular room at regular time and turn in your
Final Papers at beginning of class).