W. Schrover, MA
- Telephone:+31 20 59 85374
- Room nr:11a-14
- E-mail:w.schrover@vu.nl
- Unit:faculteit der letteren (literatuur en cultuur)
- Position:PhD-student
Office hours: please make an appointment by e-mail
Research interests
literature and medicine, literature and ethics.Teaching
I have been teaching courses on different subjects at the VU University of Amsterdam since the beginning of 2010. Taught subjects include: Art & Society, Selected Topics in Aesthetics, forms and functions of narratives, the institutional sociology of literature, the representation of the city in literature.
Research
In 2010 I was awarded a grant from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) to perform a research entitled The Art of Dying. The Representation of Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide in Contemporary Literature and Film. The research is being supervised by Professor of Modern Dutch Literature Ben Peperkamp, medical philosopher Arko Oderwald (VU University Medical Center) and Professor of Literary Studies Dick Schram.
Euthanasia and assisted suicide are not only much-debated issues in the academic literature and the popular media, they also feature in various national and international works of contemporary narrative fiction. The Art of Dying will explore the ways in which euthanasia and assisted suicide are represented in contemporary novels and feature films. Narratology will be deployed to systematically examine a representative corpus of novels and films from four different dimensions: the ethical/philosophical dimension, the biomedical/scientific dimension, the medical-anthropological dimension and the judicial/social dimension. The research will show first of all how literature and film offer engaging perspectives on the merciful death, introducing specific values concerning this multidimensional issue. Secondly, it will demonstrate how narrative fiction may intervene in and contribute to the public debates on this subject. It will apply intertextual analyses to determine how literature and film are able to enter into a dialogue with different discourses on death and dying. Thirdly, it will highlight the potentially important role of narrative fiction in society. This research has many ramifications and is firmly anchored in the Culture & Values programme of VU University Amsterdam and the research programme of the Department of Medical Humanities of the VU University Medical Center.
Publications
Schrover, Wouter. [Bespreking van: Mary Kemperink, Gedeelde kennis. Literatuur en wetenschap in Nederland van Darwin tot Einstein (1860-1920)] Tijdschrift voor Nederlandse Taal- en Letterkunde 127 (2011) 4: 434-435.
Oderwald, Arko en Wouter Schrover. “Wat heeft de kunst de geneeskunde te bieden?” Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Geneeskunde 155 (2011) 51.
Schrover, Wouter. “Pain, Pain Management and the Wish to Hasten Death in Anna Quindlen’s One True Thing.” Pain: Management, Expression, Interpretation. Eds. Andrej Danczak and Nicola Lazenby. Oxford: Inter-Disciplinary, 2011. 29-37.
Schrover, Wouter. “Een ongemakkelijke waarheid. Familie en (hulp bij) zelfdoding in One True Thing.” Ontspoorde cellen. Kanker in fictie. Red. Arko Oderwald, Koos Neuvel en Willem van Tilburg. Utrecht: De Tijdstroom, 2011. 133-140.
Schrover, Wouter. “Transworld identity: een feit in fictie?” Vooys 28 (2010) 4: 38-47.
Schrover, Wouter. “De oorlog in de oorlog. Infectieziekten in Knife Song Korea.” In: Besmet. Red. Arko Oderwald, Koos Neuvel en Willem van Tilburg. Utrecht: De Tijdstroom, 2010. 73-80.
Schrover, Wouter. “Het vonnis van de lezer. Over het verhaal ‘Jansen’ van L.H. Wiener.” In: Spiegel der Letteren 52 (2010) 1: 57-83.
Schrover, Wouter en Arko Oderwald. “Autonomie, erbarmen en de wet. Euthanasie volgens de Amerikaanse arts-auteur Richard Selzer.” In: Streven 77 (2010) 3: 216-224.
Schrover, Wouter en Arko Oderwald. “Euthanasie in Duitse romans. Literatuur voedt het debat over een zelfgekozen dood.” In: Medisch Contact 65 (2010) 4: 176-178.
Schrover, Wouter. “De vergooiing van het ik: Geestelijke vrijheidsberoving in het psychiatrisch ziekenhuis.” In: Opname: Ziek tussen vier muren. Red. Arko Oderwald, Koos Neuvel en Willem van Tilburg. Utrecht: De Tijdstroom, 2009. 219-230.
Schrover, Wouter. “Ontmoeting van twee werelden: Een nieuwe interpretatie van de intertekstuele relatie tussen de «Conte du Graal» en «Die riddere metter mouwen».” In: Queeste: Tijdschrift over middeleeuwse letterkunde in de Nederlanden 15 (2008) 2: 120-141.
Schrover, Wouter. “Talen naar het transcendente: Over T.S. Eliot en Dante Alighieri.” Wapenveld 57 (2007) 1: 38-44.
Other activities
I am a regular contributor to the Dutch Literature & Medicine Database, dept. of Medical Humanities, VU University Medical Center.
