The Caribbean and the Medical Imagination, 1764–1834: Slavery, Disease and Colonial Modernity

Emily Senior

doi:10.1017/9781108241977

During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the Caribbean was known as the 'grave of Europeans'. At the apex of British colonialism in the region between 1764 and 1834, the rapid spread of disease amongst colonist, enslaved and indigenous populations made the Caribbean notorious as one of the deadliest places on earth. Drawing on historical accounts from physicians, surgeons and travellers alongside literary works, Emily Senior traces the cultural impact of such widespread disease and death during the Romantic age of exploration and medical and scientific discovery. Focusing on new fields of knowledge such as dermatology, medical geography and anatomy, Senior shows how literature was crucial to the development and circulation of new medical ideas, and that the Caribbean as the hub of empire played a significant role in the changing disciplines and literary forms associated with the transition to modernity.

Winner of the University English Book Prize.

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Contents

The Caribbean and the Medical Imagination, 1764–1834
pp i-ii
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Cambridge Studies in Romanticism - Series page
pp iii-iv
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The Caribbean and the Medical Imagination, 1764–1834 - Title page
pp v-v
Slavery, Disease and Colonial Modernity
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Copyright page
pp vi-vi
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Dedication
pp vii-vii
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Epigraph
pp viii-viii
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Contents
pp ix-ix
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Illustrations
pp x-x
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Acknowledgements
pp xi-xii
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Communicating Disease
pp 1-20
Literature and Medicine in the Atlantic World
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Part I - Health, Geography and Aesthetics
pp 21-86
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Chapter 1 - ‘What New Forms of Death’
pp 23-54
The Poetics of Disease and Cure
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Chapter 2 - The Diagnostics of Description
pp 55-86
Medical Topography and the Colonial Picturesque
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Part II - Colonial Bodies
pp 87-154
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Chapter 3 - Skin, Textuality and Colonial Feeling
pp 89-121
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Part III - Revolution and Abolition
pp 155-192
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Chapter 5 - The ‘Intimate Union of Medicine and Magic’
pp 157-192
Obeah, Revolution and Colonial Modernity
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Afterword
pp 193-200
Colonial Modernities and after Abolition
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Notes
pp 201-256
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Bibliography
pp 257-276
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Index
pp 277-284
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Cambridge Studies in Romanticism - Series page
pp 285-292
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The Caribbean and the Medical Imagination, 1764–1834

Slavery, Disease and Colonial Modernity

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Contents

The Caribbean and the Medical Imagination, 1764–1834
pp i-ii

Cambridge Studies in Romanticism - Series page
pp iii-iv

The Caribbean and the Medical Imagination, 1764–1834 - Title page
pp v-v

Copyright page
pp vi-vi

Dedication
pp vii-vii

Epigraph
pp viii-viii

Contents
pp ix-ix

Illustrations
pp x-x

Acknowledgements
pp xi-xii

Communicating Disease
pp 1-20

Part I - Health, Geography and Aesthetics
pp 21-86

Chapter 1 - ‘What New Forms of Death’
pp 23-54

Chapter 2 - The Diagnostics of Description
pp 55-86

Part II - Colonial Bodies
pp 87-154

Chapter 3 - Skin, Textuality and Colonial Feeling
pp 89-121

Chapter 4 - ‘A Seasoned Creole’ and ‘a Citizen of the World’
pp 122-154

Part III - Revolution and Abolition
pp 155-192

Chapter 5 - The ‘Intimate Union of Medicine and Magic’
pp 157-192

Afterword
pp 193-200

Notes
pp 201-256

Bibliography
pp 257-276

Index
pp 277-284

Cambridge Studies in Romanticism - Series page
pp 285-292

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The Caribbean and the Medical Imagination, 1764–1834

Slavery, Disease and Colonial Modernity

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