[Janis McLarren Caldwell]Literature and Medicine in Nineteenth-Century Britain From Mary Shelley to George Eliot (Cambridge Studies in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture)(pdf){Zzzzz}[BЯ]

Although we have come to regard 'clinical' and 'romantic' as oppositional terms, romantic literature and clinical medicine were fed by the same cultural configurations. In the pre-Darwinian nineteenth century, writers and doctors developed an interpretive method that negotiated between literary and scientific knowledge of the natural world. Literary writers produced potent myths that juxtaposed the natural and the supernatural, often disturbing the conventional dualist hierarchy of spirit over flesh. Clinicians developed the two-part history and physical examination, weighing the patient's narrative against the evidence of the body. Examining fiction by Mary Shelley, Carlyle, the Brontës and George Eliot, alongside biomedical lectures, textbooks and articles, Janis McLarren Caldwell demonstrates the similar ways of reading employed by nineteenth-century doctors and imaginative writers and reveals the complexities and creative exchanges of the relationship between literature and medicine.

Product Description
Review
Review of the hardback: '… it contains some useful work on an impressive array of primary sources. The influence of medicine and medical theory on Romantic and Victorian writers remains insufficiently acknowledged. Janis McLarren Caldwell restores that influence to its rightful place.' The Times Literary Supplement
Book Description
This title examines works of literature by Mary Shelley, Thomas Carlyle, the Brontë sisters and George Eliot alongside medical lectures, textbooks and journal articles to demonstrate the similar ways of reading employed by nineteenth-century doctors and imaginative writers.

Publisher: Cambridge University Press; 1 edition (19 Jun. 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0521066670
ISBN-13: 978-0521066679