Overview
- Examines a wide range of texts, both scientific and literary
- Reads a number of well-known texts from canonical writers such as Shakespeare, Jonson and Middleton
- Addresses a critical oversight - the figures of barbers and surgeons, though extremely common on the Early Modern stage, have hitherto gone unexamined
Part of the book series: Early Modern Literature in History (EMLH)
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Table of contents (7 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Name
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Front Matter
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Prop
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Front Matter
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Performance
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Front Matter
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Sign
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Front Matter
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Voice
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Front Matter
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Epilogue
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Back Matter
Keywords
About this book
Through its rich foray into popular literary culture and medical history, this book investigates representations of regular and irregular medical practice in early modern England. Focusing on the prolific figures of the barber, surgeon and barber-surgeon, the author explores what it meant to the early modern population for a group of practitioners to be associated with both the trade guilds and an emerging professional medical world. The book uncovers the differences and cross-pollinations between barbers and surgeons' practices which play out across the literature: we learn not only about their cultural, civic, medical and occupational histories but also about how we should interpret patterns in language, name choice, performance, materiality, acoustics and semiology in the period. The investigations prompt new readings of Shakespeare, Jonson, Middleton and Beaumont, among others. And with chapters delving into early modern representations of medical instruments, hairiness, bloodletting procedures, waxy or infected ears, wart removals and skeletons, readers will find much of the contribution of this book is in its detail, which brings its subject to life.
Reviews
“Decamp’s thorough and erudite book will not only train readers to notice both barbers and surgeons in early modern drama and early modern English culture more generally. It also tunes our ears, as barbers might have, to the complex, historically specific resonances of objects (such as basins), words (including ‘trim’ and ‘barbarous’), and names including Lavinia (associated with washing) and Chiron (who shares with the chirurgeon a root in the Greek word for hand).” (Frances E. Dolan, Medical History, Vol. 61 (2), April, 2017)
About the author
Eleanor Decamp completed her doctorate in English Literature at the University of Oxford, UK. This is her first monograph. She is co-convenor of The Blood Project, an investigation into Medieval and Renaissance theories of blood.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Civic and Medical Worlds in Early Modern England
Book Subtitle: Performing Barbery and Surgery
Authors: Eleanor Decamp
Series Title: Early Modern Literature in History
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137471567
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan London
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media Studies, Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-137-47155-0Published: 08 March 2016
eBook ISBN: 978-1-137-47156-7Published: 15 June 2016
Series ISSN: 2634-5919
Series E-ISSN: 2634-5927
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XII, 277
Topics: Early Modern/Renaissance Literature, History of Science, Literature, general, British and Irish Literature, Modern History, History of Britain and Ireland