This book explores previously unexamined overlaps between the poetic imagination and the medical mind. It shows how appreciation of poetry can help us to engage with medicine in more intense ways based on 'de-familiarising' old habits and bringing poetic forms of 'close reading' to the clinic.
Bleakley and Neilson carry out an extensive critical examination of the well-established practices of narrative medicine to show that non-narrative, lyrical poetry does different kind of work, previously unexamined, such as place eclipsing time. They articulate a groundbreaking 'lyrical medicine' that promotes aesthetic, ethical and political practices as well as noting the often-concealed metaphor cache of biomedicine. Demonstrating that ambiguity is a key resource in both poetry and medicine, the authors anatomise poetic and medical practices as forms of extended and situated cognition, grounded in close readings of singular contexts. They illustrate structural correspondences between poetic diction and clinical thinking, such as use of sound and metaphor.
This provocative examination of the meaningful overlap between poetic and clinical work is an essential read for researchers and practitioners interested in extending the reach of medical and health humanities, narrative medicine, medical education and English literature.
ISBN: | 9781032047249 |
Publication date: | 31st December 2021 |
Author: | Alan Bleakley, Shane Neilson |
Publisher: | Routledge an imprint of Taylor & Francis |
Format: | Hardback |
Pagination: | 304 pages |
Series: | Routledge Advances in the Medical Humanities |
Genres: |
Health & Fitness Personal and public health / health education Medical sociology History of medicine Anthropology Human biology Poetry Literature: history and criticism Society and culture: general Medical study and revision guides and reference material |