Medical Caregiving Narratives of the First World War: Geographies of Care

This book explores the importance of spaces and senses in medical experiences, particularly in the context of First World War medical caregiving. It argues that medical practitioners articulated and represented their spatial and sensory experiences of caregiving through life writing, and that a novel theorization of life writing and its relationship to somatic and sensuous geographies is necessary. The book offers a conceptualization of medical and military-medical spaces and lays out a new theoretical framework for critical engagements in medical humanities.

Format: Hardback
Length: 264 pages
Publication date: 30 May 2023
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press

This book offers a novel critical intervention in medical humanities, foregrounding the importance of spaces and senses in medical experiences. It explores the distinctive experience and literary representations of somatic and sensuous geographies in First World War medical caregiving life writing. It demonstrates the complex situation of the medic, who is vulnerable both vicariously and directly to the effects of physical and psychological harm. Chapters look at the medic's relationship with the war environment; the spaces in which medical care takes place; bodies and the wounds of patients in medical narratives; and psychological and imaginative landscapes and textual spaces where complex emotions, trauma, coping, and survival are examined.

The book also argues for the centrality of spaces and spatiality in critical medical humanities. It offers a conceptualisation of medical and military-medical spaces that lays out a new theoretical framework for critical engagements in medical humanities. Through the lens of the First World War, the book provides a rich and nuanced understanding of the complexities of medical caregiving and the ways in which spaces and senses shape medical experiences.

This book is a valuable resource for scholars and students of medical humanities, history, and war studies. It offers a fresh perspective on the experiences of medical practitioners during the First World War and sheds light on the importance of spaces and senses in medical caregiving. The book's interdisciplinary approach and rich analysis make it an essential read for anyone interested in the intersection of medicine, literature, and the human experience.

Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781474489928