Exploring (un)common ground: Communication and literature in a health care setting

In this article, a claim is made for the usefulness of integrating communicative and literary analysis as a way of studying the symbolic and pragmatic aspects of human relationships. Using this interdisciplinary approach, a course has been designed to teach practitioner‐patient communication to students in the health professions through the application of theory to literary “case studies.”; The major communication concepts emphasized are content and relationship, symmetrical and complementary interchanges, and rhetorical sensitivity. Literary concepts which are highlighted include narration, symbolism, and the reader‐text relationship. An analysis of a scene from The Elephant Man demonstrates this pedagogical approach. Conceptual and methodological implications for each discipline which grow out of this collaboration are explored.