John Keats (the British Romantic poet) was a qualified surgeon-apothecary (more a general practitioner than a druggist) who boldly staked his claim in literature, making his mark on letters before the age of his death at 25.  This course will examine John Keats alongside theories of the relationship between literature and science (especially medical science).  We will read extensively in Keats’s poetry, considering not only his best-loved short poems and great Odes, but also his letters and his long narrative poems Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes, Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion.  We will consider Keats’s Romantic cultural context, especially Romantic medicine.  We’ll sample Keats’s afterlife in literary criticism and popular culture.   Finally, we’ll theorize the relationship between literature and science, then and now.  The course will require active participation and a reading journal, with entries for each class period.  Students will give one in-class presentation.  And the course will culminate in one final research paper of 10-15 pages.