Medico-Literary Pathways, Crossroads, and Side Streets

Summary

The introduction considers the multiple and complex ways in which the two dynamic fields of medicine and literature have been intertwined, how they have crossed over and developed alongside or in the shadow of one another. To this end, it develops the three main axes of the volume, namely its focus on historically, formally, and politically relevant conjunctions within the field. By spotlighting the long relationship between medicine and literature, the introduction scrutinizes the character, symmetries, and directionality of the medicine-literature connection; it explores how this volume pays testimony to the truly multifaceted reciprocal relationship at the heart of medicine and literature, which include multilingual, multicultural, global, and local perspectives as much as further consideration of how the interactions between medicine, health, and literature are shaped by intersectionality and planetary health.