Medicine and the body in the romantic periodical press

Roberts, JP 2014, Medicine and the body in the romantic periodical press , PhD thesis, University of Salford.

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Abstract

This thesis focuses on the body in political debate during the Romantic period. My original contribution to knowledge is an analysis of a corpus of periodical writing in intense detail, and I track the way in which periodical writing utilises a medical vocabulary and the reasons for this appropriation. I identify the key concern of each popular periodical, and reveal the way in which the editors attempt to achieve their goal by using language borrowed from medical discourse. I also uncover the ways in which periodical writing influenced medicine, by outlining how medical practice was politicised by social and cultural demands. Political essays and letters are the main focus of the thesis, but I also analyse poetry included in the periodical press, paying attention to formal attributes such as article placement. Illustration and marginalia are also considered. I argue that political, social, and cultural agendas shaped the direction in which medical discourse moved. Periodicals have been selected as my primary texts due to their immediacy and highly political nature, and I have selected titles that were prominent in both the literary and political spheres. I conclude that the body becomes a site of political contention in the Romantic period, and is used as an allegory in discussions of systems, power, and resistance.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Contributors:	Allen, J (Supervisor)
Schools:	Schools > School of Humanities, Languages & Social Sciences > Centre for English Literature and Language
Funders:	Non funded research
Depositing User:	JE Roberts
Date Deposited:	10 Nov 2014 17:19
Last Modified:	27 Aug 2021 23:11
URI:	https://usir.salford.ac.uk/id/eprint/32346

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