Sensation Fiction, Sexual Health, and Medical Prose: John Milner Fothergill and the Late Victorian Novel.

IF 0.2 4区 文学 0 LITERATURE LITERATURE AND MEDICINE Pub Date : 2022-01-01 DOI:10.1353/lm.2022.0032
Doug Battersby
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Abstract

This essay examines how cultural anxieties about the impact of novels on mental and physical health sparked by the sensation novel permeated late Victorian medical discourse, focusing on the prominent physician and novelist, John Milner Fothergill (1841-1888). I argue, firstly, that the articulation of these anxieties in medical writing was shaped by contemporary attitudes towards women and the working class, and secondly, that, despite his explicit censures, Fothergill's medical and literary works evince narrative and stylistic affinities with sensation fiction. The essay delineates the context behind physicians' opposition to the consumption of certain kinds of fiction in the period, demonstrating how the cultural impact of the sensation novel phenomenon can be more fully charted by incorporating explicitly medical responses. I conclude by emphasizing the need for medical humanists to attend to the diverse ways that contemporary literary developments shape medical prose, whether in the spirit of repudiation or appropriation.

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感觉小说、性健康与医学散文:约翰·米尔纳·福瑟吉尔与维多利亚晚期小说
摘要:本文探讨了由感觉小说引发的对小说对身心健康影响的文化焦虑是如何渗透到维多利亚晚期的医学话语中的,重点是著名的医生和小说家约翰·米尔纳·福瑟吉尔(1841–1888)。我认为,首先,医学写作中这些焦虑的表达是由当代对女性和工人阶级的态度所决定的,其次,尽管福瑟吉尔受到了明确的谴责,但他的医学和文学作品在叙事和风格上都表现出了与感觉小说的相似性。这篇文章描述了这一时期医生反对消费某些类型小说的背景,展示了如何通过明确的医学反应来更全面地描绘感觉小说现象的文化影响。最后,我强调医学人文主义者需要关注当代文学发展塑造医学散文的多种方式,无论是否定还是挪用。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
0.40
自引率
0.00%
发文量
20
期刊介绍: Literature and Medicine is a journal devoted to exploring interfaces between literary and medical knowledge and understanding. Issues of illness, health, medical science, violence, and the body are examined through literary and cultural texts. Our readership includes scholars of literature, history, and critical theory, as well as health professionals.
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