Sickness and Medical Authority in "The Secret Garden", "The Seige of Kishnapur", "The Magic Mountain" and "Poor Things"

Abstract

My thesis concentrates on the Victorian period from a medical point of view. It tries to demonstrate the significance the concept of health had in this age, and show the extremities that might have occurred despite their cautiousness. In a discussion of Victorian medicine it is very important to show the hierarchical society of the era, the social positions physicians occupied, hence my focus on the issue of medical authority. The individual chapters are organised around the four novels: Frances Hodgson Burnett's The Secret Garden, James Gordon Farrell's The Siege of Krishnapur, Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain and Alasdair Gray's Poor Things. The subchapters deal with some of the unique features of the works.