Overview
Because of issues of life, death, suffering, and the mortal body, the medical profession is a fertile arena for humor that serves to address these topics. The Medical Carnivalesque studies such medical humor among physicians. Suggesting that laughter and suffering connect to form part of a broader phenomenon called the medical carnivalesque, author Lisa Gabbert explores humor as a fundamental way of coping with core philosophical and existential issues that physicians regularly engage with. Featuring topics such as the institutionalized nature of physician suffering, death-related humor, humor about patient bodies, and humor about medical specialties, this ethnography of the evolution of medical humor shows us how the culture of contemporary medicine addresses the painful and transgressive aspects of the work. The Medical Carnivalesque shows us that suffering is an essential component of life, and humor in medicine emerges because of extraordinarily difficult work environments that induce suffering of the physicians themselves.
Full Product Details
Author: Lisa Gabbert (UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY)
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Imprint: Indiana University Press
Weight: 0.508kg
ISBN: 9780253070241
ISBN 10: 0253070244
Pages: 228
Publication Date: 06 August 2024
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Manufactured on demand
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.
Reviews
"""The Medical Carnivalesque is a timely effort to bring the public the awareness of the indivisible relationship between the physical and mental health of both patients and medical personnel, and it shows how folklore can help transform everyone from facing sufferings of sickness or death to living a meaningful life with hope and laughter.""—Juwen Zhang, author of Oral Traditions in Contemporary China: Healing a Nation and Epidemics in Folk Memory"
""The Medical Carnivalesque is a timely effort to bring the public the awareness of the indivisible relationship between the physical and mental health of both patients and medical personnel, and it shows how folklore can help transform everyone from facing sufferings of sickness or death to living a meaningful life with hope and laughter.""—Juwen Zhang, author of Oral Traditions in Contemporary China: Healing a Nation and Epidemics in Folk Memory
Author Information
Lisa Gabbert is Professor of Folklore Studies in the Department of English at Utah State University. She is author of Winter Carnival in a Western Town: Identity, Change, and the Good of the Community and (with Keiko Wells) of An Introduction to Vernacular Culture in America: Society, Region, and Tradition.
