(P)Rescription Narratives: Feminist Medical Fiction and the Failure of American Censorship

Prescription Narratives explores how the act of narrative creates subjects of disability, race, and gender during censorship in American history. It argues that women writers of medical fiction practice storytelling as a form of narrative medicine to prescribe healing as an antidote to the shame engineered by censorship. This exposes the limitations of social construction and materiality in conversations about the female body and opens up a space for negotiating how we engage the world with greater empathy.

Format: Hardback
Length: 240 pages
Publication date: 31 July 2022
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press

Narratives play a crucial role in revealing the intricate connections between disability, race, and gender during a period of censorship in American history. In a Crip Affect reading of woman-authored medical fiction from the Comstock Law era, this book offers a profound analysis that suggests that women writers of medical fiction employ storytelling as a form of narrative medicine, prescribing various forms of healing as an antidote to the shame perpetuated by the American culture of censorship. Woman-authored medical fiction serves as a powerful lens through which to examine the limitations of social construction and materiality in discussions about the female body. It highlights the interdependence of multiple force relations that shape and are shaped by one another in ongoing processes that persist despite our best efforts to interpret cultural artifacts. These ongoing failures to censor, resist, and interpret create a space for engaging with the world with greater empathy and understanding. By exploring the complexities of these narratives, we can gain a deeper appreciation for the ways in which storytelling can be used as a tool for healing, resistance, and social change.

Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781474493192