L’imaginaire médico-religieux

L’Imaginaire médico-religieux. French Literary Perspectives

Call for papers/ Appel à communications

For centuries, religious perspectives have informed understandings of and approaches to health and illness. As Kathlyn Conway has written, ‘In the Western world, before modern advances in medicine, when little was available in the way of cure, the story of Christianity was often the lens through which illness was viewed. It suggested that people do not control but must accept their fate and that suffering has meaning: it was the path to redemption’ (Illness and the Limits of Expression, p. 12). Even with scientific advances, and the rise in secularism, modern illness narratives frequently contain religious metaphors and religious organisations are often at the forefront of medical provision. This conference aims to explore the culturally-specific connections between medicine (illness, suffering, medical care, and death) and religion (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) across France and the French-speaking world, from the nineteenth century to the present day, and from literary and philosophical perspectives. Suggested themes include, but are not limited to:

• Religious metaphors in illness narratives
• The ways in which illness narratives or writings on disease draw on religious texts
• Theological interpretations of pain or suffering (test, punishment, redemption…)
• Mysticism and Medicine in literature
• Tensions between faith and science
• Representations of medical practice as vocation
• Literary portrayals of healing and/or miracles
• Illness/suffering as a spiritual or religious experience
• Literary portrayals of the religious and spiritual needs of patients
• End-of-life care: religious perspectives and ethics

Proposals of c. 250 words for 20-minute papers, in French or English, that deal with any aspect of the above questions should be emailed to the conference organiser, Dr Steven Wilson (steven.wilson@qub.ac.uk), by Friday 22 June 2018.

Keynote Speakers:

Prof. Vincent Kaufmann (St Gallen, Switzerland) and Prof. Enda McCaffrey (Nottingham Trent University)