Textus - English studies in Italy 3, 2024, "Spreading Contaminations: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Health, Illness, and Disease"

Far from being mere interpretations of bodily symptoms, the ideas of disease, illness, and pathology are often symbolically or metaphorically constructed (Sontag 1978) and always rooted in specific contexts and times. Hence, investigating their representations necessarily entails moving beyond physician-patient dynamics to cope with broader cultural and social concerns. Linguistic, literary, and cultural studies can engage with medical representations to “reveal their function in their historical context” (Gilman 2011: 73; see also Gilman 1988), emphasise their constitutive relation to identity and language, and unveil their inherent connection with conceptualisations of a “healthy” body and mind (Ferrara 1994), thus challenging stigmas associated with various forms of disease, illness, disability and trauma.