학술논문
Satire in Eighteenth-Century Medical Discourse: Elizabeth Nihell, Tobias Smollett and the Advent of Man-Midwifery
Document Type
Academic Journal
Author
Whitt, Richard J. (University of Nottingham)
Source
Subject
Subject Literature: English literature
Period:1700-1799
Genre:periodicals ; The Critical Review (1756-1817)
Period:
Genre:
Language
ISSN
0013-838X
1744-4217 (electronic)
1744-4217 (electronic)
Abstract
This paper examines Tobias Smollett’s scathing assessment in the Critical Review of Elizabeth Nihell’s midwifery treatise, Treatise on the Art of Midwifery (1760), a polemic against the use of instruments in childbirth and the increasing popularity of man-midwifery. This continues with Nihell publishing a response to Smollett’s review, and then Smollett responding to Nihell’s response. The Nihell-Smollett exchange brings discourses surrounding two concomitant medical controversies – the use of instruments in childbirth and the presence of men in the birthing chamber – to the fore, and it is particularly remarkable due to the satirical tone adopted in this exchange, particularly by Smollett. Using Simpson’s model of satirical discourse, this paper explores the textual-linguistic practices adopted by both Smollett and Nihell and elucidates how satire both construes and is construed by rival medical ideologies in mid-eighteenth-century England.