The University of Edinburgh
While the academic study of literature and medical education have long been pursued separately, recent years have seen an increasing interest in the ways in which they might be brought together. The advent of the ‘medical humanities’ as an area of research and study has brought the methods and subject matter of both medicine and a range of humanities disciplines into an often fruitful engagement, and new journals and an ever-growing number of research projects testify to the rich potential of these conjunctions.
This intercalated degree is designed to permit medical students with an interest in, and aptitude for, the critical and contextual study of literature to widen their experience and deepen their knowledge of literature and the methods by which it is studied, to develop their critical and analytical skills, and to reflect fruitfully on the ways in which the study of literature and the study of medicine might shed new light on each other. It will introduce students to some of the ways in which literary texts have taken medical science, in broad outline and specific detail, as their focus. It will also explore the ways in which the developing science of medicine has affected and shaped the ways in which literature is written and read. And it will seek to prompt reflection on the ways in which the writing and reading of literature might be of relevance and benefit both to medical practitioners and patients. In most of their courses, students will be studying alongside, and collaborating with, students taking English or Scottish Literature MA Honours.
Entry requirements
Please see our website for details.
Closing Date
Applications close in January each year. See our website for further information.