Narrative competence is a crucial dimension of health-care delivery, the capacity to attend and respond to stories of illness, and the narrative skills to reflect critically on the scene of care. Narrative Medicine explores and builds the clinical applications of literary knowledge. How are illnesses emplotted? Does suffering belong to a genre? Can a medical history be co-narrated in order to redistribute ownership and authority? What does Geoffrey Hartman mean by the term, “story cure?” the objectives of this course include furthering close reading skills, and exploring theories of self-telling and relationality. At the center of this project is the medical encounter. We are interested in situations in which one person gives an account of himself, of herself, and another person is expected to receive it. In examining the complexities of this exchange, to help clinicians to fulfill their “receiving” duties more effectively, we will turn to narrative theory, performance theory, autobiographical theory, psychoanalytic theory, and the nexus of narrative and identity. Readings will include works by Fyodor Dostoevsky, Henry James, W.G. Sebald, Kazuo Ishiguro, Judith Butler, Arthur Frank, Jonathan Shay, and Michael White, and an assortment of the readings in narrative theory, trauma scholarship and witnessing literature.

The course will involve a close reading of Frued’s major work between 1893 and 1915. The focus will be on his evolving and contradictory understanding of the functioning of the mind, “the apparatus of the soul,” with and emphasis on repression and sexuality.

The readings will include: Studies on Hyseria and other papers from 1893 to 1899, The Interpretation of Dreams (1900), Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality (1905), selected papers from 1907 through 1910, and the Papers on Metapsychology (1915).

Course requirements are regular attendance, 1-2 page comment on the reading before each class, participation in class discussions, and a term paper at the end of the semester.

Instructor: C. Tsoukalas

This course examines the current European crisis in the context of the perils of globalization, focusing, however, not on the strictly financial sphere but on the social and political implications of an economic demise. The six lessons will address in turn: 1) The fetish of “growth” and the moral demise of the West; 2) the disembeddedness of markets from society; 3) the functional demise of national states and the privatization of public services; 4) the dispossession and waning of the “middle classes”; 5) the incapacitation of democracy and the generalization of corruption; 6) the reconsideration of the relative autonomy of the political.

Please contact the ICLS office for more information, icls@columbia.edu, 212-854-4541.

Instructor: T. Gilliam

This course is designed to introduce students to the multiple media methods of engaging global humanitarianism, particularly within Diasporic contexts. Alongside a thorough review of both popular and independent activist media, Students will be trained to use accessible technology to participate in International humanitarian communications networks. We will explore projects as seemingly diverse as World Bank, Unicef and Benetton Institutional Campaigns; the architecture of David Adjaye; Ross Kauffman and Zana Briski’s, Born Into Brothels; and Majora Carter’s Sustainable South Bronx.

This course introduces students to the rich tradition of literature about and by Greeks in America over the past century, exploring questions of multilingualism, translation and gender. Students examine how contemporary debates in diaspora studies and translation theory can inform each other and how both, in turn, can inform a discussion of the writing of the Greek American experience in histories, novels, poetry, and films. Authors include Broumas, Cicellis, Eugenides, Kaplani, Kazan, Papadiamantis, Selz, Spanidou, Valtinos as well as performance artists such as Diamanda Galas. Theoretical and comparative texts include Benjamin, Derrida, Hoffman, Kafka, Kallifatides, Roth, Rushdie, Wirth-Nesher and the Wizard of Oz. No knowledge of Greek is necessary, although an extra-credit tutorial is available for Greek speakers. Students with a comparative interest in Diaspora and multilingual literature are encouraged to enroll.

An exploration of the philosophical and theological writings of Hegel and Nietzsche. Special attention will be given to the way in which these two pivotal figures frame issues for subsequent philosophers, theologians, writers and artists. Works to be considered include: Hegel, Science of Logic, and Phenomenology of Spirit; Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy, Will to Power, Gay Science and Thus Spoke Zarathustra. The course will conclude with a consideration of several of Wallace Stevens’s poems.

Examines the evolution of the ideas, institutions and practices associated with social justice in Africa and their relationship to contemporary international human rights movement and focuses on the role of human rights in social change. A number of themes will re-occur throughout the course, notably tensions between norms and reality, cultural diversity, economic and political asymmetries, the role of external actors, and women as rights providers. Countries of special interest include Liberia, Senegal, South African and Tanzania.

An examination of imperialism’s use of codes, acrostics, maps, diagrams, and other forms of secret communication. The seminar will focus on how the culture of secrecy that accompanied imperial expansion defined the tools of literary imagination in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. While most studies of culture and imperialism examine the impact of colonial expansion on the geography of narrative forms, this seminar looks more closely at the language of indirection in English novels and traces metaphors and symbols to imperialism’s culture of secrecy. Application instructions: E-mail Professor Viswanathan (gv6@columbia.edu) with the subject heading “Imperialism seminar.” In your message, include basic information: your name, school, major, year of study, and relevant courses taken, along with a brief statement about why you are interested in taking the course. Application instructions: E-mail Professor Viswanathan (gv6@columbia.edu) by noon on april 11th with the subject heading “Imperialism and Cryptography seminar.” In your message, include basic information: your name, school, major, year of study, and relevant courses taken, along with a brief statement about why you are interested in taking the course.

Instructor: P. Connor

Introduction to the major theories and methods of translation in the Western tradition, along with practical work in translating. Topics include translation in the context of postcolonialism, globalization and immigration, the role of translators in war and zones of conflict, gender and translation, the importance of translation to contemporary writers.