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Richard Deming¹, Justin Clemens² & Valery Vino³

¹Senior Lecturer, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA

²Associate Professor, English and Theatre Studies, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia

³Philosopher, Northern Rivers, Australia. Email: valery.arrows@gmail.com

 Volume 13, Number 2, 2021 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n2.11

Abstract

In the thick of the global plague, Richard, Justin and Valery agreed to hold a conversation on the topic of poetics, self-understanding, and health. An analysis and discussion of this trinity requires love of poetry and philosophy. Both supreme human practices take common root in mythology and religion, and also share a notorious categorical divide, that of reason against affect. Is this Platonic divide indeed categorical, given both practices rely on language and creativity to compose their meaning? Interestingly, the practice of poetics does not have the reputation for boosting one’s health, in the mainstream understanding of that concept. If anything, poetic practice gained notoriety for corrupting one’s mind and, possibly, life. Like philosophy? We touched on these and other classical aporia, on the political struggles in American and Australian poetry. Here is a written record of this encounter, countries and miles apart, three persons simply getting to know one another.

Key words: poetics, philosophy, conflict, self-understanding, health

Jan Gresil S. Kahambing

Social Science Unit, Leyte Normal University, Philippines. ORCID: 0000-0002-4258-0563. Email: jan_kahambing@lnu.edu.ph

 Volume 13, Number 2, 2021 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n2.10

Abstract

Michael Ondaatje’s Warlight (2018), his latest novel to-date, contains nostalgic elements of strangeness and cartography. In this paper, I short-circuit such themes with health under medical humanities, which heeds a Nietzschean counsel of close reading in literature. To do so, I explore the case of Rachel’s illness, namely her epileptic seizures, as an instance that drives her impetus for active forgetting and eventual convalescence. A close hermeneutical reading of the novel can reveal that both of Nietzsche’s ideas on active forgetting and convalescence provide traction in terms of what this paper constructs as Rachel’s pathography or narration of illness. Shifting the focus from the main narrator, Nathaniel, I argue that it is not the novel’s reliance on memory but the subplot events of Nathaniel’s sister and her epilepsy that form a substantial case of medical or health humanities.

Keywords:  Forgetting, Epilepsy, Health, Humanities, Nietzsche, Convalescence

John Paolo Sarce

Lecturer, Ateneo de Manila University, Quezon City, Philippines. Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Manila, Philippines. ORCID ID: 0000-0003-4428-778X. Email: john.sarce@obf.ateneo.edu  

 Volume 13, Number 2, 2021 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n2.09

Abstract

Health and illness as themes are uncommonly being touched in literature classrooms. Other than the lack of interdisciplinary studies or specialists in this field in the Philippines, often teachers are also confronted with tons of materials that they are either overwhelmed to teach or find it difficult to deliver on their classes. This is the goal of this paper, help teachers gain confidence and basic knowledge of teaching literature that discusses health and illness especially at this time of history. Helping both teachers and students to understand and appreciate literature as a space for developing empathy while also honing their communicative and critical thinking skills. This paper will execute this goal by providing teachers in high school a guide in teaching literature that tackles health and illness using Philippine literature. I will translate theories and concepts from other studies into easy and clear language that teachers and students will find accessible to learn and use. And to organize this article, I will divide this into three parts the first is backgrounding and developing the framework in teaching literature about health and illness. Second, the application of the framework developed using two Philippine literature texts. And lastly, this paper will demonstrate how to teach Philippine literature that tackles health and illness using an online learning management system like Canvas or Google Classroom.

Keywords: Philippine Literature, Teaching Literature, Health Literature, Illness Literature, Medical Humanities

Khandakar Shahin Ahmed

Assistant Professor, Department of English, Dibrugarh University. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0482-4835. Email: shahenahmed252@gmail.com        

 Volume 13, Number 2, 2021 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n2.08

Abstract

Understanding of disease is not merely confined to the pathological perception of the somatic symptoms. Instead, a society’s understanding and management of disease may necessarily also take recourse to ideas referring outside and beyond the human body. The explanation of the plague in early modern England, an era marked by the rapid recurrence of the epidemic, is a notable event in this regard. The plague-ridden body of the early modern times is located in a state of pre-medicalization of the human body, and in the absence of a medicalized narrative, the understanding of the epidemic is not based on the somatic paradigm. The incipient state of the medical study precipitates the ground for understanding the epidemic in the light of religious discourse. From a reading of Thomas Nashe’s “A Litany in a Time of Plague” and Thomas Dekker’s London Looke Backe it can be deciphered that the plague-infected body is perceived as a site of divine justice. In interpreting the epidemic as vengeful God’s rage inflicted upon the sinful humanity, the early modern explanation disembodies the diseased body from its somatic dimension. In doing so it resurfaces the problematic dichotomies of body and soul, medical science and religion. In taking cognizance of the fact that the understanding of a disease is largely determined by the socio-cultural ‘constructs’ of the disease, this paper, through a reading of the above-mentioned works, attempts to explore how the diseased body is caught in a complex network of contesting ideas and beliefs in early modern England.

Keywords: epidemic, somatic, medicalization, gaze

Difeng Chueh

Assistant Professor, Feng Chia University, Taichung, Taiwan. Email: difeng.c@gmail.com

 Volume 13, Number 2, 2021 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n2.07

Abstract

This paper aims to explore Beauplaisir’s disabled libertine identity in Eliza Haywood’s Fantomina; or Love in a Maze (1725) in order to understand how “disability” was conceptualized by eighteenth-century authors. Beauplaisir is a libertine obsessed with pursuits of sexual pleasure with various women. In those sexual adventures, Beauplaisir constructs his abled libertine identity through his observation skills. In fact, Beauplaisir’s observation skills also render him disabled. Haywood’s portrayal of Beauplaisir’s disabled libertine identity offers another way to examine meanings of disability in eighteenth-century literary works. As I will contend, the definition of “disability” was not limited to a person’s physical or mental impairment in the eighteenth century. Instead, an eighteenth-century person could become disabled when s/he lost certain qualifications for becoming a member of a particular group. The word “disabled” or “disability” was used in this way by eighteenth-century writers such as Samuel Johnson and Jonathan Swift. As I will show, Beauplaisir’s disabled libertine identity is a result of his being excluded from the abled libertine group. This exclusion results from a trick imposed on him by Fantomina. Thus, examinations of Beauplaisir’s disabled libertine identity will point out another side of “disability.”

Keywords: disabled libertine, eighteenth-century libertinism, eighteenth-century disability studies, exclusion

Maya Vinai

Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, BITS Pilani (Hyderabad Campus). ORCID: 0000-0001-5217-9645. Email: mayavinai@hyderabad.bits-pilani.ac.in

 Volume 13, Number 2, 2021 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n2.06

Abstract

During the early 19th century, health and medical care was one of the avenues of contestations whereby the British Raj sought to establish their hegemony. With the introduction of western epistemic framework, allopathic medicine became the official medical system of British India.  Licenses, charters, permits and acts, colonial hospitals and doctors came together to disparage the indigenous system of medicine and healthcare. Assailed as using “unscientific Oriental procedures’ several folk healers lost their traditional practice and livelihood. However, amidst all these colossal manoeuvres, the popularity and relevance of the Ashtavaidya tradition, practiced by eighteen Namboodiri families in Kerala remained unscathed. The medical practices customized by the Ashtavaidyans who themselves were an “outcaste” within the Namboodiri community was highly codified and has remained a closely guarded secret within their lineage. This essay probes into the multiple reasons behind how the Ashtavaidya tradition retained its relevance, despite the colonial gambit to repudiate the indigenous practices. Through the legends and mythical stories woven around the healing practices of Ashtavaidyans in Aithihyamala by the court scribe of 19th century, Kottarathil Sankunni, the essay argues that relevance of the Ashtavaidyans could be due to the transformation of Ashtavaidya tradition as markers of cultural pride and the popular image generated by various myths and legends that got registered in the public consciousness.

Keywords: Ashtavaidyan, healthcare, colonialism, nationalism, philanthropy

Punnya Rajendran

Assistant Professor, Department of English Studies, Central University of Tamil Nadu.

Email: punnyarajendran@cutn.ac.in

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6311-7383.

 Volume 13, Number 2, 2021 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n2.05

Abstract

This paper seeks to explore the complex negotiation between mesmerism (as unauthorised medical practice) and the State by analyzing the singular example of Dr. James E. Esdaile, a Scottish civil surgeon stationed in Hooghly, Calcutta, in the 1840-50s; one of the few known medical practitioners of mesmerism in colonial India. His diary titled Mesmerism in India, and its Practical Application in Surgery and Medicine contains a record of every patient who walked into Esdaile’s clinic in Hooghly complaining of pain, the subsequent interaction that took place between the doctor and the patient, usually in the form of a simple sequence of questions and answers, and a description of the procedure by which the patient was treated. The documentation of Esdaile’s controversial clinical practice offers several important insights into the practice of parrhesia (a theory of truth-telling proposed by Foucault) in conjunction with the practice of mesmerism as medicine. Within the annals of medical history, clinical egodocuments such as Esdaile’s surgical diary exemplify the emergence of a difficult relationship between the historical subject and the desire to speak the truth. It reveals how a unique moment in colonial medical history becomes emblematic of a negative relationship with the parrhesiastic act.

Keywords: mesmerism, colonial medicine, parrhesia, Esdaile, surgical diary

Sathyaraj Venkatesan¹ and Arya Suresh²

 ¹Associate Professor, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, NIT Trichy, India. Email: sathyaiitk@gmail.com ORCID ID: 0000-0003-2138-1263

 ²PhD Scholar, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, NIT Trichy, India. Email: livearyalive@gmail.com ORCID ID: 0000-0002-3411-0094

 Volume 13, Number 2, 2021 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n2.03

Abstract

Within health humanities, graphic medicine narrates individual stories of patient experience in its interaction with the system of healthcare and its professionals. These autopathographies give a new perspective to the medicalized accounts of diseases and assign subjectivity to the voice which narrates its sufferings. From a medical perspective, clinical reasoning is an important step in the treatment of any disease and a procedure that determines the course of the upcoming treatment. However, in psychiatry, clinical reasoning is a problematic terrain with its lack of external validating criteria and increased reliance on non-somatic symptoms of the disease. In many instances, the authority of biomedical knowledge takes over clinical reasoning and completely denies the individuality of a mental patient and his or her story. This research article attempts to investigate how individual stories and experiences are undermined in psychiatric clinical reasoning discourses and recognizes the importance of empathy and compassion in medical listening through a close reading of select graphic memoirs on bipolar disorder. Citing certain panels from Rachel Lindsay’s Rx (2018) and Ellen Forney’s Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo and Me (2012), this study analyses the pitfalls of clinical reasoning in psychiatry and the widening gap of doctor-patient communication in such facilities. Interweaving the theory of Sayantani Das Gupta’s Narrative humility with instances taken from the above mentioned texts this article discusses the imperative need to restore empathy in medical listening.

Keywords: Graphic medicine, psychiatry, medical listening, clinical reasoning, psychiatric gaze, narrative humility, empathy

Hyojeong Byun

Associate Professor, College of Creative Future Talent, Daejin University, Pocheon-si, South Korea. ORCID: 0000-0002-4850-0843. Email: byunglish@daejin.ac.kr

 Volume 13, Number 2, 2021 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n2.02

Abstract

Willa Cather’s The Professor’s House dismantles feminine behaviors, as Cather ascribes new meaning to her marginalized female characters’ independent acts and depicts male characters being saved by women. Cather’s care and care ethics are based on human relations; they highlight empathy, responsibility, acceptance, and emotion-based practice. She accordingly shows sincere care and acts in the spirit of salvation for the characters’ surroundings, culture, and society through marginalized figures such as Augusta, Mother Eve, and Tom. These are examples of alternative caregivers who develop a connection-based relationship through their sincerity and attentiveness and cultural and social care. In their care, we observe a spirit of self-sacrifice and the possibility of a true bond between them and others and their communities. This article conveys Cather’s capacity for serving as a conduit for healing and solidarity and proves her visionary force of care practice.

Keywords: Willa Cather, The Professor’s House, care, care ethics, care practice.

Susan M. Squier

Brill Professor Emerita of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and English, the Pennsylvania State University, USA. Einstein Visiting Fellow, Freie Universität Berlin, 2016-2021. Email: susan.squier@gmail.com

 Volume 13, Number 2, 2021 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n2.01