Literature and Medicine on location
In 2014 we started with a course of one week given on location. In many novels in the field of literature and medicine the location of the novel plays an important role. One of the finest examples is The magic Mountain by Thomas Mann. The first course we developed was Beauty, disease and decay in Venice. After that we started a second course in Vienna. The courses are a mixture of class (discussing the novels), walks through the city and visits to interesting places.
These courses were initially developed for the Higher Education of the Elderly in Amsterdam, but they were soon made also available for the students of the Honour Program of both Amsterdam Universities. Now, in 2024, this activity has spread over 12 European cities in Dutch and 9 cities in English.
At this moment, courses in English are available in the following cities:
Vienna
Novels discussed
Irvin Yalom: When Nietzsche wept
Joseph Roth: Job
Thomas Bernhard: Wittgenstein’s nephew
Arthur Schnitzler: Dream Story & Flight into Darkness
Stefan Zweig: Beware of pity
Visits & walks
Psychiatric art in Gugging
Kafka’s Dying place
Freud museum
Baumgärtner Höhe
Former hospital, now university
Paris 1
Novels discussed
Honoré de Balzac: The wild asses’s skin
Emile Zola: Thérèse Raquin
Louis-Ferdinand Céline: Journey to the end of the night
Andrew Miller: Pure
Georges Simenon: The bells of Bicetre
Marcel Proust: fragments from A la Recherche du temps perdu
Vincent van Gogh: letters
Visits and walks
Three city walks: Marais, Quartier latin and The passages
Musée d’Orsay
Catacombes
Bicetre hospital
Auvers, Auberge Ravoux, Van Gogh walk
Paris 2
Novels and films discussed
Per Olov Enquist: The Book about Blanche and Marie
JK Huysmans: Against nature
Michel Houellebecq: Submission
Charles Beaudelaire: The flowers of evil
Julian Barnes: The man in the red coat
Julian Barnes: The sense of an ending
Films: Camille Claudel (1988) en Camille Claudel 1915 (2013)
Visits and walks
Nogent sur Seine, Camille Claudel museum
Delacroix museum, Paris
Bourdelle museum, Paris
Rodin museum, Paris
Salpétrière hospital
Lübeck
Novel discussed
Thomas Mann: Buddenbrooks
Visits & walks
Thomas Mann House
Buddenbrooks walk through Lübeck
Visit to Travemünde
Zürich and Davos
Novel discussed
Thomas Mann: The magic Mountain
Visits and walks
Literary walk through Zürich
Visit to the grave of Thomas Mann and his last house
Magic Mountain walk in Davos
Kirchnermuseum Davos
Polling and München
Novel discussed
Thomas Mann: Dr. Faustus
Visits and walks
Bicycle tour through Munich: the houses of Thomas Mann
Dr. Faustus walk in Polling
Lisbon
Novels discussed
José Saramago: The year of the death of Ricardo Reis
Fernando Pessoa: fragments
António Lobo Antunes: Knowledge of hell.
Pascal Mercier: Nighttrain to Lisbon
Erich Maria Remarque: The night in Lisbon
Antonio Tabucchi: Pereira maintains & Requiem: a hallucination
Visits & Walks
Two literary walks through Lisbon
Saramago museum
Prazeres graveyard
Tram tour through Lisbon
Trieste
Novels discussed
James Joyce: The dead (stackbox)
Claudio Magris: Microcosms
Italo Svevo: As a Man Grows Older
Italo Svevo: Confessions of Zeno
Rainer Maria Rilke: Duino Elegies
Visits and walks
Literary walk through Trieste
Svevo/Joyce museum
Risiera di San Sabba
Duino
Miramare
Rouen (under construction)
Novels: Flaubert and De Maupassant
Monet and Giverny
Flaubert walk in Rouen
Flaubert museum
Expected in 2025: London
Dates can be discussed. Prices are reasonable. Please contact us for more information!
Update 14 03 2024