Literary and Linguistic Perspectives on Healthcare and Disease: Themes and Trends from the Eighteenth Century to the Present

The intricacies of the mutual relationships between linguistic studies, literary studies, and human health have inspired the current issue of Quaderni di LEA. Far from being mere interpretations of bodily symptoms, the concepts of disease, illness, and pathology are often symbolically or metaphorically constructed (Sontag 1978; Graham and Sewell 1990; Semino et al. 2020; Garzone 2023), and are always rooted in specific historical and cultural contexts. Investigating these representations therefore requires moving beyond the physician–patient dynamic to address broader cultural and social concerns. Linguistic and literary studies can engage with medical representations to “reveal their function in their historical context” (Gilman 2011: 73; see also Gilman 1988), to emphasise their constitutive relation to identity and language, and to uncover their deep entanglement with dominant conceptualisations of a “healthy” body and mind (Ferrara 1994). In doing so, they also help challenge the stigmas attached to various forms of disease, illness, disability, and trauma.