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Medical Maladies: Stories of Disease and Cure From Indian Languages

Medical Maladies: Stories of Disease and Cure From Indian Languages

$27.00
Author:Edited by Haris Qadeer
ISBN 13:9789391125752
Binding:Softcover
Language:English
Year:2022
Subject:Language and literature

About the Book

This pioneering anthology brings together 19 fascinating short stories, translated into English from Indian languages—Assamese, Bengali, Hindi, Kashmiri, Marathi, Malayalam, Punjabi, Odia, and Urdu—demonstrating a spectrum of medical cultures in India. The thought-provoking and compelling stories address a wide array of themes and topics, including the individual and social crises during epidemics, medical pluralism, patient care, medical paternalism, disease-mongering, medicalization, and medical ethics, amongst others. Delineating a range of diseases, healing, and allied concerns in India, the stories depict modern medical professionals such as doctors, nurses, surgeons, as well as traditional practitioners such as vaids, hakims, kavirajs, quacks, and folk healers. A few of the stories also engage with aspects of women’s mental and physical health, including pregnancy, childbirth, abortion, and depression. Ranging from the early 20th century stories to contemporary ones, the compendium includes pieces by canonical authors such as Tagore, Premchand, and Manto, as well as by medical practitioners such as Rashid Jahan and Shirin Shrikant Valavade. The anthology garners refreshing insights and offers a new understanding of the interrelationship of literature and medicine.