Learning Outcomes:
On completion of this module, students should be able to:
● Identify and describe major themes in representations of general and particularly adolescent health and illness
● Recognise connections between fictional, philosophical and clinical perspectives on illness
● Work collaboratively to communicate their learning
● Reflect on how their reading of texts has changed
● Identify critical frameworks for understanding creative representations of illness and vulnerability
● Compare and contrast different forms of narrative and their importance in healthcare.
Indicative Module Content:
Students will read generally fictional accounts of varying experiences of illness, which they will consider in conversation with relevant philosophical writings and discussions of clinical practice. Guest lectures will be offered by outside experts including patient advocate groups, publishing representatives and academics.
Topics may include:
1. Overviews of the overlaps between medical and mental health, from pregnancy and across childhood and adolescence. How are these experiences represented in literature?
2. Mental health, depression and anxiety and looking at this in Young Adult (YA) literature;
3. Representations of specific health and mental health areas, for example suicide in fiction; body image and eating disorders; narratives of grief and bereavement; representations of chronic illness.
4. Wider societal questions with relevance for pediatric and adolescent health, through topics such as vaccination, pandemics and plagues, and fictional monsters.
5. The position of the clinician in pediatric settings, exploring narratives of professional burnout.