The retrospective raj

by Sam Goodman

ISBN: 9781474448741

Published: 2022-01-17

Explores the 20th century literary revival of Empire and the post-imperial novel through a critical medical humanities lens The Retrospective Raj: Medicine, Literature and History After Empire undertakes a detailed analysis of the use of medicine as a recurrent and defining trope of post-imperial fiction published between 1950 and 1990. It argues that during this crucial period of recent history, when the influence and prestige of the British Empire was nearing its end, a range of contemporary novelists including J. G. Farrell, Paul Scott, John Masters, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and Salman Rushdie identified and used medicine as a discursive paradigm through which to engage critically with the history, authority and legacy of the British Empire within their writing. Drawing on a range of literary and archival sources, this work explores the complex relationship between Britain, India and Empire through a medical lens, bringing together the concerns of literary study and medical history...