Call for Papers: Epidemic Remedies In Medical Writing - 18th - 19th June 2024
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Please note, there is no fee for registration.
*Epidemic Remedies In Medical Writing - 18th - 19th June 2024 - University
of Ferrara*
This conference aims to discuss the representation of epidemic remedies in
medical writing in England and in France between 1500 and 1920. Prospective
presenters are invited to address epidemic remedies across five centuries,
bearing three main methodological observations in mind. Firstly, the
pivotal role of the plague and the Spanish influenza as opening and closing
points to the selected timeframe. Secondly, the working definition of
“remedy” as a cure “for a disease, disorder, injury, etc.; a medicine or
treatment that promotes healing or alleviates symptoms.” (OED, remedy 2).
This comprehensive definition intends to allow for historical specification
and diachronic terminological variation, which the prospective presenters
are invited to explore and specify. Thirdly, the definition of
representation as “the process by which members of a culture use language
(broadly defined as any system which deploys signs, any signifying system)
to produce meaning” (Hall 1997: 61), with particular emphasis on language
use at lexical and discourse level, as well as the interaction between
semiotic systems (e.g. word and image).
The present aim is not only to offer a diachronic perspective on the
linguistic and visual representation of remedies, but also to focus on
remedies prescribed during epidemics, with a view to better understanding
the history of medical and health communication. Potential research
questions straddle multiple standpoints - historical linguistics, the
analysis of discourse, the analysis of lexis, as well as images - and
multiple text types (medical treatises, medical dictionaries, periodical
publications, medical advertisements through time). They include but are
not limited to:
- The lexical description of remedies in medical writing
- The metaphorical description of remedies in medical writing
- The rhetorical construction of ethos in medical writing dealing with
epidemic remedies
- The visual representation of remedies in medical writing
- The visual representation of remedies in newspapers/magazines
- The linguistic-visual construal of remedies in texts containing
multiple semiotic systems (i.e. advertisements)
- the insurgence of misinformation and disinformation in/about health
communication (these categories may be epistemologically relevant in
papers dealing with the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries)
We invite proposals from a wide range of methodological perspectives. To
name but a few: corpus-assisted critical discourse analysis, critical
discourse analysis, multimodal discourse analysis, historical lexicography
and terminology, new historicism, cultural theory, epistemology, philosophy
of science, gender medicine, and gender theory.
Please submit a *one-page abstract *(*ca. 200 – 300 words excluding
references*). Presentations (*in English or in French*) will consist of a
20-minute talk followed by 10 minutes for questions and discussion.
All research papers should be delivered in person. All abstracts should be
submitted to *remediesconference2023@unife.it
participants (1)
-
Dario Del Fante