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digest 2006-04-03 #001.txt
litsci-l-digest Monday, April 3 2006 Volume 01 : Number
153
In this issue:
SUB 06: The Gaia World View
SUB 06 Panel Presentation 'Evolving Humanistic Perspectives in
Medical Literature'
Fwd: CFP: Humanities and Technology Assn.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sun, 2 Apr 2006 22:49:12 -0700
From: "Doctress Neutopia"
Subject: SUB 06: The Gaia World View
Many years ago I was inspired to write a doctoral dissertation The Gaia
Religion: The Sacred Marriage of Art and Science. As a worldview it
recognizes that science and art as a product of spirituality are
interlaced.
The perspective creates a holistic framework in which art can give us an
ethical basis needed to explore and understand science. This union is
required to envision a global utopia, a plan of building a network of
arcologies (ecocities) on Earth and in Outer
Space. The worldview moves us beyond the nuclear power paradigm (with
its
built in motivation towards human extinction) to a world-wide race to
build
ecocities of renewable energies (a race to species salvation).
I have a PowerPoint slide show that outlines a plan of action needed to
transform our present "dinosaur cities" into ecocities. I would like to
present this at the conference.
The dissertation which incorporates a feminist theory of architecture
can be
read at:
http://www.lovolution.net/MainPages/gaia/gaia.htm
A Race to Build Ecocities can be read at:
http://www.lovolutionvillage.org/articles/racetoBuild/racetoBuild.htm
I am also proposing conducting a Gaia Healing Ritual similar to the one
I
conducted in Tucson, Arizona.
Please read about it at:
http://www.lovolution.net/MainPages/gaia/gaiaRitual.htm
keys words: ecocities, architecture, conscious evolution, worldview,
global
utopia, Gaia
Doctress Neutopia aka Libby Hubbard, EdD
Independent Scholar, Futurist, Artist
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 3 Apr 2006 08:44:50 -0400
From: "Robert Bonk"
Subject: SUB 06 Panel Presentation 'Evolving Humanistic Perspectives in
Medical Literature'
SLSA 2006 Panel Presentation:
Evolving Humanistic Perspectives in Medical Literature
=20
Literature with topics or themes related to medicine =
provides a unique vantage for viewing the society from which that =
literature derived. Such medical literature can show viewpoints of not
=
only providers and patients, but also the social stage on which medical
=
literature performs. This panel presents medical literature from three
=
key writers-Oliver Wendell Holmes, William Carlos Williams, and Albert =
Camus-to reveal trends for the past two centuries in the evolution of =
humanistic perspectives in medical literature.
=20
Key Words: Albert Camus-Oliver Wendell Holmes-Medical =
Humanities-Medical Literature-William Carlos Williams
=20
Panel Chair:
Robert J. Bonk, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Professional Writing
Widener University
One University Place
Chester, PA 19013-5792 USA
610-499-4265
rjbonk@mail.widener.edu
* * * * *
=20
Persuasion and Reform:
Oliver Wendell Holmes and the Rhetoric of Medical Science
=20
This paper examines Holmes's role as a catalyst in the re-imagination of
=
the scientific physician in American literature. One of Hawthorne's =
closest friends, Holmes devoted much of his literary and scientific work
=
to medical reform, establishing himself as the patient's advocate by =
arguing against poor hygiene in "The Contagiousness of Puerperal Fever"
=
and by exposing reckless therapeutics in "Homoeopathy and Its Kindred =
Delusions." Holmes's medical principles were heavily influenced by the =
French clinical tradition, particularly by his mentor Pierre Louis. =
Bringing the clinical method to bear on his practice of medicine in the
=
United States, Holmes stressed the role of storytelling in medicine by =
engaging the popular imagination with accessible, science-driven =
metaphors. His medical reforms may have been reactions to the =
caricatures of medical scientists in Hawthorne's short fiction and other
=
nineteenth-century American literature.
=20
Key Words: American Literature-Clinical Medicine-Medical =
Humanities-Oliver Wendell Holmes-Rhetoric
=20
Joshua Dolezal, Ph.D.
Visiting Assistant Professor of English
Central College
Pella, IA 50219 USA
641-628-5109
dolezalj@central.edu
=20
* * * * *
=20
Rolling Up Out of Chaos: Diagnosis as Pharmakon in=20
William Carlos Williams' Prose and Poetry
=20
The diagnostic disciplines of literature and medicine, as =
demonstrated in William Carlos Williams' works, aim to analyze, =
organize, and manage human disease and death through the medium of =
rhetoric, while entertaining and informing readers. However, as =
Williams shows, the nature of language complicates the processes of =
diagnosis and composition. Just as physicians must attempt to read the =
symptoms of a misfunctioning body for signs of disease and health, the =
writer must choose words carefully to reflect a correct interpretation =
of meaning to readers. Accurate diagnoses can be illuminating while =
misdiagnoses can be disastrous. By applying Jacques Derrida's Platonic
=
argument that language is a pharmakon (both remedy and poison), along =
with Julie Connolly's theory that "physicians through their writing =
attempt to bring order to disordered situations," I intend to show that
=
diagnosis within both disciplines reveals its double nature: that =
diagnosis and writing in the medium of language can be either remedy or
=
poison, depending upon the doctor's or writer's intention and choice of
=
diction, and his/her own interpretation of signs, so that bodies and =
texts as systems can either suffer a spin toward the equilibrium of =
death or benefit the patient/reader with illuminative and orderly =
information. =20
=20
Keywords: Literature-Medicine-Derrida-Pharmakon-Diagnosis
=20
Dr. Jill Clark
Assistant Professor of British Literature
English Department
Fisk University
1000 17th Ave. N.
Nashville, TN 37208 USA
(615) 329-8695
jclark@fisk.edu
=20
* * * * *
=20
Medicine as Absurdity in Albert Camus's "The Plague"
=20
As a social construct, modern medicine perforce reflects =
that society's paradigms and perspective. But did modern society open a
=
Pandora's Box releasing remedy and risk from medical technology? Both =
cared for and cut by this caducean sword, society began to question if =
its desired 'magic bullet' can offer a panacea for our antiseptic =
institutions. Such internal conflicts required a new microscope for =
examining this increasing dilemma. Enter Albert Camus. Afflicted in =
his youth with tuberculosis and then depression, Camus transitioned from
=
an early journalism career into fiction writing, eventually recognized =
by the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1957. His novel "The Plague" (first
=
published in 1947 in the original French as "La Peste") examines a =
bubonic-like epidemic in Oran, a soon-to-be quarantined seaside town in
=
Algeria. Players isolated by sand and sea look in vain to their =
institutions of society-religion, government, medicine-as they struggle
=
to survive this epidemic. Within this context, Camus's perspective of =
absurdism-struggle against the conflict arising when trapped between =
contradictory inevitabilities-offers a vantage point into this modern =
society nonetheless powerless to stave off "The Plague."
=20
Keywords: Absurdism-Albert Camus-Epidemic-Medical =
Literature-Plague
=20
Robert J. Bonk, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Professional Writing
Widener University
One University Place
Chester, PA 19013-5792 USA
610-499-4265
rjbonk@mail.widener.edu
=20
=20
=20
=20
------------------------------
>>> "Wayne Miller" 4/3/2006 9:29:00 AM >>>
From: m-graziano@northwestern.edu
CALL FOR PAPERS
HUMANITIES AND TECHNOLOGY ASSOCIATION CONFERENCE
MANHATTAN, NEW YORK CITY
5-8 OTOBER 2006
[Re]Configurations: Arts, Humanities, and Technology in the Urban
Environment
We invite individual papers and session proposals addressing the
conference theme from
all possible disciplinary angles, such as its representation in
literature, the visual arts,
political essays, or scientific and philosophical writings. We welcome
submissions for
poster or portfolio presentation and musical performance as well.
In addition to the conference theme, papers on all other aspects of the
interaction of
technology, science, and the humanities are welcome.
The conference theme addresses the role of the visual and performing
arts and
technologies in the urban environment. As locations for human activity,
cities would seem
to invite interactions of the arts, humanistic concerns, and technology.
Our disciplinary
emphasis on expertise often results in isolation of individual fields.
Our cities consign the
arts to limited precincts within the urban environment, while
technologies, represented as
largely neutral, value-free and beyond politics and identity, appear to
function without
concern for aesthetics. Here in Lower Manhattan, our technology has
reconfigured the
landscape, changing the very shape of the island on which the city is
built, creating the
buildings that tower over the streets of the old colonial settlement,
adding all the
infrastructure of a modern urban environment. While the parklands
created on the
riverfront have integrated artworks and landscaping with new buildings,
development
within the business core itself seems haphazard and less human in scale.
Recent events
have forced open the possibilities for reconfiguration. We invite
consideration of
possibilities for a humane urban environment.
We welcome consideration of new materials, media, technologies and
academic disciplines
(and cross-disciplines), as a way of integrating this new urban vision
of community with
artistic and aesthetic concerns.
Proposals may be directed to:
Howard S. Meltzer
Department of Music and Art, S115
Borough of Manhattan Community College
199 Chambers Street
New York, NY 10007
hmeltzer@bmcc.cuny.edu
Submission Deadline: May 12, 2006
