RELAZIONE A CONVEGNO - CHIMED-3 The Third International Conference on Historical Medical Discourse - Mary Ward House, London (UK) on 11th-12th May 2023 ABSTRACT: The general aim of this contribution is a historical and diachronic linguistic analysis of the ‘art and science’ called midwifery as it emerges from the paratext of British reference works (instruction manuals and family books, textbooks, treatises, etc.) originally published in English between 1701 and 1800 by contemporary authors. The paratextual sections under scrutiny are front matter (i.e. title page, table of contents, preface and/or introduction, advertisement; dedication is excluded) and back matter (i.e. index and/or glossary, appendix). The investigation is essentially focussed on i. the terminology used to introduce midwifery (e.g. equivalents, definitions, single words/multiword expressions), ii. the lexical and conceptual network used by different authors to clarify what midwifery is or should be for them and for the ‘community of practice’ (e.g. description, exposition, classification/taxonomy, etc.), iii. the recursive linguistic and rhetorical issues to construct (e.g. inform, instruct, explain, categorise, etc.) the discourse(s) on midwifery and systematise empirical, experimental, and scientific contents, discoveries, and processes over time. As regards the source texts, they were selected starting from works which include the words midwifery/midwifry and midwife/midwives (Gale Primary Sources) in their title pages, and which only discuss midwifery as an art and/or a branch of medicine. General collection of medical issues were systematically excluded from the final corpus. The corpus includes 130 works (monographs of various length and complexity) written by physicians, surgeons, and male and female practitioners at different levels. The approach is qualitative and is based on close reading of the selected paratextual sections for every item in the corpus.
That which principally enobles any science, is the dignity of its object, and the public utility arising from it’: midwifery and medical writing in 18th-century British reference works. (CONVEGNO - CHIMED-3 The Third International Conference on Historical Medical Discourse - Mary Ward House, London (UK) on 11th-12th May 2023
Elisabetta Lonati
2023-01-01
Abstract
RELAZIONE A CONVEGNO - CHIMED-3 The Third International Conference on Historical Medical Discourse - Mary Ward House, London (UK) on 11th-12th May 2023 ABSTRACT: The general aim of this contribution is a historical and diachronic linguistic analysis of the ‘art and science’ called midwifery as it emerges from the paratext of British reference works (instruction manuals and family books, textbooks, treatises, etc.) originally published in English between 1701 and 1800 by contemporary authors. The paratextual sections under scrutiny are front matter (i.e. title page, table of contents, preface and/or introduction, advertisement; dedication is excluded) and back matter (i.e. index and/or glossary, appendix). The investigation is essentially focussed on i. the terminology used to introduce midwifery (e.g. equivalents, definitions, single words/multiword expressions), ii. the lexical and conceptual network used by different authors to clarify what midwifery is or should be for them and for the ‘community of practice’ (e.g. description, exposition, classification/taxonomy, etc.), iii. the recursive linguistic and rhetorical issues to construct (e.g. inform, instruct, explain, categorise, etc.) the discourse(s) on midwifery and systematise empirical, experimental, and scientific contents, discoveries, and processes over time. As regards the source texts, they were selected starting from works which include the words midwifery/midwifry and midwife/midwives (Gale Primary Sources) in their title pages, and which only discuss midwifery as an art and/or a branch of medicine. General collection of medical issues were systematically excluded from the final corpus. The corpus includes 130 works (monographs of various length and complexity) written by physicians, surgeons, and male and female practitioners at different levels. The approach is qualitative and is based on close reading of the selected paratextual sections for every item in the corpus.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
