Leiden University Student Repository

Casson, Nina Anne (2016)

John Donne and Timothy Rogers: Exploring the Parallels Between Early Modern English Illness Narratives and Contemporary Illness Narrative Paradigms

Master thesis | Literary Studies (MA)

In a time where illness could often not be explained from a medical perspective, those who fell ill sought to find the meaning of their suffering elsewhere. Today, many illnesses, ailments and pains can be explained in medical terms, but biomedicine does not seem to allow many, if any, other narratives to coexist with the restitution narrative. Illness as a lived experience goes beyond the purely medical and clinical terms that define it, illness is more than an occasion to practise medicine; it is an occasion to practise humanity and perhaps this is what best defines the field of medical humanities and what becomes clear in John Donne’s and Timothy Roger’s illness narratives.

Illness

Illness narratives

John Donne

Timothy Rogers

Arthur Frank

Early Modern English

Medical Humanities

Author

Casson, Nina Anne

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Specialisation

English Literature and Culture

Supervisors

Dijkhuizen, J.F. van

ECTS Credits

20

Language

en