Medical Narratives of Ill Health
Call for Papers
Humanities special issue
The field of literature and medicine has been steadily growing over the past
four decades, solidifying itself as a vital component of the medical and health
humanities. The intersection of literature and medicine enriches how we view
issues of health, disease, and care, particularly in how we value the
individual’s narrative of health and ill health to help with diagnosis, treatment,
and the relationship between the practitioner and the patient. In an attempt to
wade through the difficult terrain of defining disease and health, Kenneth Boyd
provides the following medical definitions (adapted from Marshall Marinker’s
earlier work): “Disease […] is the pathological process, deviation from a
biological norm. Illness is the patient's experience of ill health, sometimes
when no disease can be found. Sickness is the role negotiated with society”
(Boyd, 1997). What Boyd reveals about these definitions is that one allows for
the individual’s experience of ill health (illness), while the other two rely
on others’ perceptions of ill health. Thus, he concludes, a clear definition of
disease (and even sickness) is elusive: “to call something a disease is a value
judgement, relatively unproblematic in cases when it is widely shared, but more
contentious when people disagree about it” (Boyd, 1997). This contentious space
has widened during the modern medical era (early nineteenth century to the present
day), as medical reliance on technology favors an objective identification of
disease. However, literary works, through both personal accounts and fictional
scenarios, challenge this singular narrative of disease and ill health provided
by the medical community.
For this special issue of Humanities,
we seek to explore how literature from the early nineteenth century to the
present day engages with and challenges modern medical authority when it comes
to understanding disease, illness, and sickness. Papers for this special issue
of Humanities should
focus on narratives—fictional and/or non-fictional (such as medical realism,
science fiction, pathographies, medical reports, etc.)—that explore the
contentious space of disagreement between medicine, society, and the
individual. Authors might consider topics such as: disease as metaphor; social
vs. medical definitions of disease; patient agency and individual experiences
of illness; challenges to medical technology’s presumed objectivity;
representations of contagion and/or public health—or any other topics that
relate to better understanding literary representations of disease, illness,
and/or sickness.
Articles should be no more than 8000 words, inclusive of notes. The deadline
for submission of articles to the guest editor is January 10, 2019: please
email articles directly to Amanda M. Caleb at acaleb@misericordia.edu. The deadline
for final drafts is February 28, 2019, with expected puplication in early Summer
2019. Please consult the journal's webpage for formatting instructions: http://www.mdpi.com/journal/humanities/special_issues/contagion.
Dr. Amanda Caleb
Guest Editor
Guest Editor
Contact
Info:
Dr. Amanda M. Caleb, Misericordia University
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