The medical gaze in literature and history.

摘要

This thesis concerns the medical gaze as articulated in Michel Foucault's The Birth of the Clinic. It uses a theoretical tool described as a pyramid made up of space, body, and language to analyze literature from the Middle Ages and the Restoration period. Geoffrey Chaucer's The Physician's Tale and Thomas Shadwell's play, The Virtuoso figure prominently in the analysis of medicine during their respective periods. It is determined that the medical gaze in different periods foregrounds different concerns and privileges certain types of bodies over others.