Instructor: King-Kok Cheung
Subject Area:Â English
Course Description:Â The course explores how the ethic of care can be fostered in virtual and actual communities to combat Covid-19 and its fallout vis-Ã -vis international and interpersonal tensions. This ethic, which encompasses neighbor love, compassion, and empathy, has been inculcated in multiple religions and philosophies including Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Confucianism, classics (Marcus Aurelius), and existentialism (Arendt, Camus, Frankl). Course will supplement this ethic with the notion of self-care, which is imperative in braving covid 19. The readings of the course focus on literary and journalistic pieces written in the wake of a pandemic (real or imagined), natural disaster, or a family member’s terminal illness: Haruki Murakami’s “Honey-Pie,” Viet Thanh Nguyen’s “I’d Love You to Want Me,” Sigrid Nunez’s Salvation City, and Chang-rae Lee’s “Coming Home Again.”