Literature and Medicine in Nineteenth-Century Britain by Jani... - 9780521066679

Literature and Medicine in Nineteenth-Century BritainFrom Mary Shelley to George Eliot\nAuthor(s): Janis McLarren Caldwell\nFormat: Paperback\nPublisher: Cambridge University Press, United Kingdom\nImprint: Cambridge University Press\nISBN-13: 9780521066679, 978-0521066679\nSynopsis\nAlthough 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 Bronts and George Eliot,.