School of English
Module manager: Dr Emma Trott
Email: e.j.g.trott@leeds.ac.uk
Taught: Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) View Timetable
Year running 2026/27
This module is not approved as a discovery module
This module reads contemporary imaginative representations of heart disease to ask what happens when cultural understandings of the heart (as love, emotion, character) meet the heart in a medical context. Changes of heart – through illness, surgery or transplant – shape embodied experience, and are connected with other markers of identity such as gender and race. Medical humanities perspectives will aid exploration of the relationship between physical and psychological health, illness and wellbeing.
This module aims to develop student understanding of how heart disease is represented in contemporary literature. Through lectures and small-group seminars, students will be introduced to a range of texts that offer new ways of thinking about the body and explore the relationship between physical and emotional health and illness. Students will develop an understanding of the role language, particularly metaphor, plays in medicine, and of the intersections between illness and other markers of identity such as race, gender, class, and disability. They will learn how medical humanities perspectives can develop their skills at critically analysing texts.
On successful completion of the module students will have demonstrated the following learning outcomes relevant to the subject:
1. Compare the ways different literary texts represent heart disease in relation to cultural and medical contexts.
2. Analyse the language used in representations of heart disease experience.
3. Apply medical humanities methodologies to literary analysis.
4. Demonstrate knowledge of the ways language and cultural associations with the heart can shape patient experience.
Skills Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of the module students will have demonstrated the following skills learning outcomes:
5. Integrate close reading skills with theoretical knowledge. (Academic)
6. Apply research skills and specialist knowledge in new contexts. (Academic / Work-Ready / Technical)
Details of the syllabus will be provided on the Minerva organisation (or equivalent) for the module
| Delivery type | Number | Length hours | Student hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lecture | 5 | 1 | 5 |
| Seminar | 10 | 1 | 10 |
| Private study hours | 185 | ||
| Total Contact hours | 15 | ||
| Total hours (100hr per 10 credits) | 200 | ||
Weekly dialogue in small-group seminars; opportunities for one-to one-meetings in tutor’s weekly office hour; individual written feedback on mid-semester assessment; opportunities for one-to-one meetings with departmental Writing Mentors. One-to-one meeting with tutor following Week 9 submission to discuss plan for research essay.
| Assessment type | Notes | % of formal assessment |
|---|---|---|
| Essay | 3000-word research essay on two module texts, or one module text and one other agreed in advance with module lead. | 100 |
| Total percentage (Assessment Coursework) | 100 | |
A 1000-word formative essay will be submitted in Week 8. Students will receive written feedback and invited to seek verbal feedback on this work. Should students wish, this piece can then be developed into the final assessed essay.
Check the module area in Minerva for your reading list
Last updated: 30/04/2026
Errors, omissions, failed links etc should be notified to the Catalogue Team