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Week 4--From the Mythic to the Medical: A Shift in Discourse
This week we're finishing Middlesex, then welcoming Katie Baratz (HC '07) as a guest visitor to our class.
What strikes you, as you turn from the literary language of Eugenides' novel (and of the myths it recycles),
What strikes you, as you turn from the literary language of Eugenides' novel (and of the myths it recycles),
to a series of personal narratives told on the Oprah Winfrey Show, and then to a handbook written for parents of children with "disorders of sex development" (which you've encountered elsewhere under the terms "hermaphroditism" and "intersex")? What can you say about the different use-values of these various (mythic, confessional, medical....) languages? What questions or observations do you have, in particular, for Katie (an undergrad classics major who is now in med school)? What would you like to talk with her about?