Mysterious and misunderstood, distorted by biblical imagery of
disfigurement and uncleanness, Hansen's disease or leprosy has all
but disappeared from America's consciousness. In Carville,
Louisiana, the closed doors of the nation's last center for the
treatment of leprosy open to reveal stories of sadness, separation,
and even strength in the face of what was once a life-wrenching
diagnosis.
Drawn from interviews with living patients and extensive
research in the leprosarium's archives, "Carville: Remembering
Leprosy in America" tells the stories of former patients at the
National Hansen's Disease Center. For over a century, from 1894
until 1999, Carville was the site of the only in-patient hospital
in the continental United States for the treatment of Hansen's
disease, the preferred designation for leprosy.
Patients-exiled there by law for treatment and for separation
from the rest of society-reveal how they were able to cope with the
devastating blow the diagnosis of leprosy dealt them. Leprosy was
so frightening and so poorly understood that entire families would
suffer and be shunned if one family member contracted the disease.
When patients entered Carville, they typically left everything
behind, including their legal names and their hopes for the
future.
Former patients at Carville give their views of the outside
world and of the culture they forged within the treatment center,
which included married and individual living quarters, a bar, and
even a jail. Those quarantined in the leprosarium created their own
Mardi Gras celebrations, their own newspaper, and their own body of
honored stories in which fellow sufferers of Hansen's disease
prevailed over trauma and ostracism. Through their memories and
stories, we see their very human quest for identity and endurance
with dignity, humor, and grace.
Marcia Gaudet is the Doris Meriwether/Board of Regents Professor
of English at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
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