TY - JOUR
T1 - The disease of the self
T2 - Representing consumption, 1700-1830
AU - Lawlor, Clark
AU - Suzuki, Akihito
PY - 2000/9/1
Y1 - 2000/9/1
N2 - Susan Sontag’s now-classic Illness as Metaphor presents a compelling analysis of the paradoxical nature of the disease that was variously called consumption, phthisis pulmonalis, and, later, tuberculosis. Comparing the disease with cancer, she noted a stark contrast in the metaphors generated by the two fatal diseases of modern times: while cancer stood for negative values, consumption served as a metaphor of essentially positive attributes, such as heightened beauty, refined sensibility, and artistic creativity—La Traviata, The Magic Mountain, and John Keats being obvious examples. Or, as Sontag has succinctly put it, “As TB was the disease of the sick self, cancer is the disease of the Other.”1 Her perceptive work has done a great deal to stimulate both medical and literary historians to approach diseases in the past from the perspective of the subjective experience, images, metaphors, and mythologies, supplementing studies of the objective frameworks of medical discoveries, therapeutic breakthroughs, and disease mortality.
AB - Susan Sontag’s now-classic Illness as Metaphor presents a compelling analysis of the paradoxical nature of the disease that was variously called consumption, phthisis pulmonalis, and, later, tuberculosis. Comparing the disease with cancer, she noted a stark contrast in the metaphors generated by the two fatal diseases of modern times: while cancer stood for negative values, consumption served as a metaphor of essentially positive attributes, such as heightened beauty, refined sensibility, and artistic creativity—La Traviata, The Magic Mountain, and John Keats being obvious examples. Or, as Sontag has succinctly put it, “As TB was the disease of the sick self, cancer is the disease of the Other.”1 Her perceptive work has done a great deal to stimulate both medical and literary historians to approach diseases in the past from the perspective of the subjective experience, images, metaphors, and mythologies, supplementing studies of the objective frameworks of medical discoveries, therapeutic breakthroughs, and disease mortality.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0034267813&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1353/bhm.2000.0130
DO - 10.1353/bhm.2000.0130
M3 - Review article
C2 - 11016095
AN - SCOPUS:0034267813
SN - 0007-5140
VL - 74
SP - 458
EP - 494
JO - Bulletin of the History of Medicine
JF - Bulletin of the History of Medicine
IS - 3
ER -