Writing Illness and Identity in Seventeenth-Century Britain

This book is a survey of personal illness as described in various forms of early modern manuscript life-writing. How did people in the seventeenth century rationalise and record illness? Observing that medical explanations for illness were fewer than may be imagined, the author explores the social and religious frameworks by which illness was more commonly recorded and understood. The story that emerges is of illness written into personal manuscripts in prescriptive rather than original terms. This study uncovers the ways in which illness, so described, contributed to the self-patterning these texts were set up to perform.

List of contents

Acknowledgements.- Abbreviations.- Introduction.- 1. Diaries.- 2. Autobiography.- 3. Letters.- 4. Poetry.- Conclusion.- Notes.- Bibliography.- Index.-

About the author

David Thorley received his doctorate from Durham University, UK. He has taught at the Universities of Oxford and Durham.

Summary

This book is a survey of personal illness as described in various forms of early modern manuscript life-writing. How did people in the seventeenth century rationalise and record illness? Observing that medical explanations for illness were fewer than may be imagined, the author explores the social and religious frameworks by which illness was more commonly recorded and understood. The story that emerges is of illness written into personal manuscripts in prescriptive rather than original terms. This study uncovers the ways in which illness, so described, contributed to the self-patterning these texts were set up to perform.

Product details

• Authors: David Thorley
• Publisher: Springer Palgrave Macmillan
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 01.01.2018
• EAN: 9781349955152
• ISBN: 978-1-349-95515-2
• No. of pages: 231
• Dimensions: 148 mm x 13 mm x 210 mm
• Weight: 323 g
• Illustrations: IX, 231 p.
• Series: Palgrave Studies in Literature, Science and Medicine; Palgrave Studies in Literature, Science and Medicine
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies; B, Fiction & related items, Fiction, Literature, Cultural and Media Studies, Literature: history & criticism, European Literature, Eighteenth-Century Literature, Literature, Modern—18th century, Literature—History and criticism, Literary History, British literature, British and Irish Literature, Fiction Literature