Writing Medieval Illness

How did medieval people imagine their bodies in terms of health and illness? What did they feel, or say they felt, when they were sick? What stories did they tell about why some people fell ill while others didn’t, and how it could be dealt with? From mundane preoccupations such as skincare or diet to life-altering maladies such as leprosy or dementia, physical and mental distress had a firm hold on the medieval imagination, calling for a wealth of explanations, coping methods, and lots of venting, whether in real life or in fiction. The suffering or malfunctioning body has always been a matter of personal and social concern from antiquity to the present, but writers, thinkers, and medical practitioners of the Middle Ages grappled with it under their own peculiar sets of terms, some shocking, some familiar, but all intriguing. In this seminar, we will explore how medieval literary works present illness and health in modes spanning personal suffering, diagnosis, healing, and caregiving. We will read an eclectic mix of poetry and narrative together with important medical, scientific, and philosophical writings that shaped medieval outlooks on health, framed by relevant scholarship in the history of medicine. Our readings will lead us to rethink, and play with, the apparent boundaries between practical writing and literary fiction. We will also use medieval texts as stepping-off points to question our own ingrained notions of the relations between body, health, and representation. Together, we will work toward building a richer literary history of what it means to be, seem, or feel healthy—or not so healthy.

Our main focus will be on literature circulating in early forms of English up to the 15th century, but we will also look at texts written in other classical and medieval languages, to get a better sense of the wider European and global context. Our time will be divided between collaborative close reading and focused discussion, with occasional instructor mini-lectures as necessary.