Medicine and the body in the romantic periodical press

Roberts, JP

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.

Citation

Roberts, J. Medicine and the body in the romantic periodical press. (Thesis). University of Salford

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Nov 10, 2014
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 10, 2014