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Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - The medical dangers of literary genius
AU - Ruston, Sharon
PY - 2016/10/1
Y1 - 2016/10/1
N2 - This essay examines three key texts, by William Buchan, Isaac D’Israeli, and Richard Robert Madden, which demonstrate the emergence of the newly conceived idea of literary genius in the Romantic period. It considers the role of a new genre, the “medical biography”, in the development of this phenomenon. While the mental precariousness of the Romantic genius has been much commented upon, this essay concentrates instead on the bodily or physical aspects of genius, which is itself figured as a disease. The study and writing involved in publication are viewed as stimulants that can be addictive, ruining the health and wellbeing of authors and even leading to their early deaths.
AB - This essay examines three key texts, by William Buchan, Isaac D’Israeli, and Richard Robert Madden, which demonstrate the emergence of the newly conceived idea of literary genius in the Romantic period. It considers the role of a new genre, the “medical biography”, in the development of this phenomenon. While the mental precariousness of the Romantic genius has been much commented upon, this essay concentrates instead on the bodily or physical aspects of genius, which is itself figured as a disease. The study and writing involved in publication are viewed as stimulants that can be addictive, ruining the health and wellbeing of authors and even leading to their early deaths.
KW - medicine
KW - body
KW - reading
KW - writing
KW - genius
U2 - 10.1353/lm.2016.0015
DO - 10.1353/lm.2016.0015
M3 - Journal article
VL - 34
SP - 299
EP - 319
JO - Literature and Medicine
JF - Literature and Medicine
SN - 0278-9671
IS - 2
ER -