The Female Body in Medicine and Literature features essays that
explore literary texts in relation to the history of gynaecology
and women's surgery. Gender studies and feminist approaches to
literature have become busy and enlightening fields of enquiry in
recent times, yet there remains no single work that fully analyses
the impact of women's surgery on literary production or,
conversely, ways in which literary trends have shaped the course of
gynaecology and other branches of women's medicine. This book will
demonstrate how fiction and medicine have a long-established
tradition of looking towards each other for inspiration and
elucidation in questions of gender. Medical textbooks and pamphlets
have consistently cited fictional plots and characterisations as a
way of communicating complex or 'sensitive' ideas. Essays explore
historical accounts of clinical procedures, the relationship
between gynaecology and psychology, and cultural conceptions of
motherhood, fertility, and the female organisation through a broad
range of texts including Henry More's Pre-Existency of the Soul
(1659), Charlotte Bronte's Villette (1855), and Eve Ensler's Vagina
Monologues (1998). The Female Body in Medicine and Literature
raises important theoretical questions on the relationship between
popular culture, literature, and the growth of women's medicine and
will be required reading for scholars in gender studies, literary
studies and the history of medicine. This collection explores the
complex intersections between literature and the medical treatment
of women between 1600 and 2000. Employing a range of methodologies,
it furthers our understanding of the development of women's
medicine and comments on its wider cultural ramifications. Although
there has been an increase in critical studies of women's medicine
in recent years, this collection is a key contributor to that field
because it draws together essays on a wide range of new topics from
varying disciplines. It features, for instance, studies of
motherhood, fertility, clinical procedure, and the relationship
between gynaecology and psychology. Besides offering essays on
subjects that have received a lack of critical attention, the
essays presented here are truly interdisciplinary; they explore the
complex links between gynaecology, art, language, and philosophy,
and underscore how popular art forms have served an important
function in the formation of 'women's science' prior to the
twenty-first century. This book also demonstrates how a number of
high-profile controversies were taken up and reworked by novelists,
philosophers, and historians. Focusing on the vexed and convoluted
story of women's medicine, this volume offers new ways of thinking
about gender, science, and the Western imagination. List of
contributors: Janice Allan, Madeleine K. Davies, Greta Depledge,
Laurie Garrison, Joanna Grant, Lori Schroeder Haslem, Dominic
Janes, Emma L. Jones, Karin Lesnik-Oberstein, Pam Lieske, Andrew
Mangham, Emma L. E. Rees, Sheena Sommers, Susan C. Staub, and
Carolyn D.Williams.
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