~The diseases peculiar to women~ : gender & curative space in Britain and British India, 1860-1914
This dissertation examines the gynecological construction of medicalized ~curative space~ both as an imagined ideal and a material reality in Britain and British India, from the mid-Victorian period to the advent of the First World War. Throughout this dissertation I employ two different definitions of curative space. The first, a geographer's definition, refers to the spaces of types of sites that the medical community deems to be salubrious or inducing of good health. The second is a psychologists definition and refers to the space between the patient and the therapist where healing is allowed to occur. As the long nineteenth-century progressed, women experienced many different types of curative space in their quest for better physical, mental, and moral health. This thesis interrogates the medical rationale underpinning these different kinds of medically mandated curative spaces, with particular emphasis on the home, the asylum, and the hill station sanatorium, in order to further our understanding of how medical discourse and practice shaped ideas about the female body and influenced the formation of women's subjectivities during this time period. To provide an analytical framework for this thesis, several
Plotkin, L. V.
~The diseases peculiar to women~ : gender & curative space in Britain and British India, 1860-1914. This dissertation examines the gynecological construction of medicalized ~curative space~ both as an imagined ideal and a material reality in Britain and British India, from the mid-Victorian period to the advent of the First World War. Throughout this dissertation I employ two different definitions of curative space. The first, a geographer's definition, refers to the spaces of types of sites that the medical community deems to be salubrious or inducing of good health. The second is a psychologists definition and refers to the space between the patient and the therapist where healing is allowed to occur. As the long nineteenth-century progressed, women experienced many different types of curative space in their quest for better physical, mental, and moral health. This thesis interrogates the medical rationale underpinning these different kinds of medically mandated curative spaces, with particular emphasis on the home, the asylum, and the hill station sanatorium, in order to further our understanding of how medical discourse and practice shaped ideas about the female body and influenced the formation of women's subjectivities during this time period. To provide an analytical framework for this thesis, several
the disease peculiar women gender space britain british_india examines construction space imagine ideal material reality britain british_india mid_victorian period advent first_world_war throughout employ two_different definition space first geographer definition refers space type sit medical community deem induce good health second psychologist definition refers space patient healing allow occur long nineteenth_century progress woman_experience many_different type space quest well physical_mental moral health interrogates medical rationale underpinning different_kind medically mandate space particular_emphasis home asylum hill station order medical discourse_practice shape idea female_body influence_formation woman subjectivity time_period provide_analytical framework several