Medical screening: medical imag[in]ing, the body, and the self.
2011-06
Loading...
View/Download File
Persistent link to this item
Statistics
View StatisticsJournal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Title
Medical screening: medical imag[in]ing, the body, and the self.
Authors
Published Date
2011-06
Publisher
Type
Thesis or Dissertation
Abstract
This dissertation examines representations of medical imaging technologies in order to understand how sick artists (writers, painters, and filmmakers) use diagnostic technologies in their work to assert their subjectivity in the face of medicine's efforts to objectify them. It uses the phrase "medical imag[in]ing technology" to refer broadly to visual and aural aids that have assisted physicians and surgeons with their work, and focuses primarily on the X-ray, the microscope, and the telephone, which had a brief stint as a proto-ultrasound device at President James A. Garfield's deathbed. Its chapters engage a series of texts connected in their efforts to understand the body through medical imag[in]ing technologies: Thomas Mann's 1924 novel The Magic Mountain, Alice James's diary, Frida Kahlo's paintings, Sergio Leone's westerns, Norman Mailer's films and writings, and the narratives surrounding the James-Younger Gang's 1876 raid on Northfield, Minnesota, and the 1881 assassination of President Garfield. I posit that these nineteenth and twentieth century texts and their efforts to understand both illness and medicine through medical imaging technologies anticipate contemporary efforts to involve patients in their health care through online medical records, illness blogs, and illness-based social networking sites.
Description
University of Minnesota Ph.D. dissertation. June 2011. Major: English. Advisors: Paula Rabinowitz, Siobhan Craig. 1 computer file (PDF); ii, 226 pages.
Related to
Replaces
License
Collections
Series/Report Number
Funding information
Isbn identifier
Doi identifier
Previously Published Citation
Suggested citation
Cohen, Sara Jo. (2011). Medical screening: medical imag[in]ing, the body, and the self.. Retrieved from the University Digital Conservancy, https://hdl.handle.net/11299/110107.
Content distributed via the University Digital Conservancy may be subject to additional license and use restrictions applied by the depositor. By using these files, users agree to the Terms of Use. Materials in the UDC may contain content that is disturbing and/or harmful. For more information, please see our statement on harmful content in digital repositories.