Constructions of Cancer in Early Modern England : Ravenous Natures

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The work Constructions of Cancer in Early Modern England : Ravenous Natures represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in European University Institute Library. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

Constructions of Cancer in Early Modern England : Ravenous Natures

Title remainder

Ravenous Natures

Statement of responsibility

by Alanna Skuse

Creator

• Skuse, Alanna

Subject

• Europe-History
• European literature
• History
• History, Modern
• Literature, Modern
• British literature

Language

eng

Summary

This book is open access under a CC-BY licence. Cancer is perhaps the modern world's most feared disease. Yet, we know relatively little about this malady's history before the nineteenth century. This book provides the first in-depth examination of perceptions of cancerous disease in early modern England. Looking to drama, poetry and polemic as well as medical texts and personal accounts, it contends that early modern people possessed an understanding of cancer which remains recognizable to us today. Many of the ways in which medical practitioners and lay people imagined cancer - as a 'woman's disease' or a 'beast' inside the body - remain strikingly familiar, and they helped to make this disease a byword for treachery and cruelty in discussions of religion, culture and politics. Equally, cancer treatments were among the era's most radical medical and surgical procedures. From buttered frog ointments to agonizing and dangerous surgeries, they raised abiding questions about the nature of disease and the proper role of the medical practitioner.--

Member of

• Palgrave Studies in Literature, Science and Medicine,

Is part of

• Springer Nature eBook

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Provided by publisher

Image bit depth

0

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

dictionaries

Series statement

Open Access e-Books