Instructors: Timothy Lenoir (History & Philosophy of
Science)
Georgene Moldovan (Surgery)
John Bender (English & Comparative Literature)
Beginning in the late 1950s, but accelerating at an ever faster pace
by the end of the 90s, technology has dramatically transformed modern medicine.
Before World War II the typical physician had a modest toolbox consisting
of a thermometer, stethoscope, sphygmomanometer, and occasional access
to x-ray machines and electrocardiograph. Along with these medical devices
the physician of the 1940s was assisted by a limited cabinet of pharmaceuticals,
including the sulfa drugs and penicillin. After the War biological research
was transformed through a new armamentarium of biophysics instruments-electron
microscopes, ultracentrifuges, mass spectrometers-and new agents such as
radioactive isotopes. A revolution in microelectronics and semiconductors
initiated during the War together with the development of computers led
the way to entire new fields of biomedical imaging such as ultrasound,
computerized tomography (CT and PET scanners), nuclear magnetic resonance
imaging (MRI), and with the development of charged couple devices (ccd's),
fields such as endoscopic surgery. Massive changes in biomedicine were
also prepared by the creation in the 1950s of the new field of molecular
biology, as well as by developments in immunology and pharmacology, which
enabled, among other things, the development of the birth control pill
and radical new ways of intervening in the body, including transplantation
of kidneys, hearts, lungs and livers. Further steps in these directions
more recently include the prospect of fetal tissue transplantation as a
means for treating certain inborn metabolic disorders, and the development
of molecular genetics promises genetic therapy as an added technological
dimension of the modern medical revolution.
The aim of this course is to examine the thesis that these dramatic new
ways of imaging, controlling, intervening, remaking, possibly even choosing
bodies have participated in a complete reshaping of the notion of the body
in the cultural imaginary and a transformation of our experience of actual
human bodies. The history of recent and contemporary medical technology
will serve as our material context to explore this thesis about body work
using theories of postmodernism, addressing the questions, are there postmodern
bodies? and how have they been constructed? Among the themes we will explore
is the thesis advanced by Donna Haraway that postmodern bodies are cyborg
bodies and that we are all cyborgs. The class will be conducted as a colloquium
framed by student presentations related to the course readings.