female patientTheAmerican women writers narrating medicine and psychology, 1890-1930The Female Patient: American Women Writers Narrating Medicine and Psychology 1890-1930 considers how American women writers, including Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Zelda Fitzgerald, Sarah Orne Jewett, Edith Wharton, and Gertrude Stein, use the novel form to examine medical culture during and after the turn of the 20th century. These authors insert the viewpoint of the woman patient, I argue, to expose problematics of gendered medical relationships and women’s roles in medicine, as well as the complexities of the pre-Freudian medical environment. Issues such as categorizing and portrayal of mental illness, control and perception of the patient through treatment, women's alternative medical practices, addiction, and the immigrant and minority patient are all examined. In doing so, the goal of revising medicine's dominant narratives and literature's role in that objective may be achieved. Authors using the subjectivity of the patient help to refigure perspectives of women's medical and social encounters. Utilizing historical record and sociocultural theorizing, this dissertation presents the five women authors as essential in creating new narratives of modernity and ways of understanding medical experience during this time.autSlatus, KerrithsClarke, DeborahdgcHolbo, ChristinedgcTromp, MarlenepblArizona State UniversityengPartial requirement for: Ph.D., Arizona State University, 2016Includes bibliographical references (pages 245-261)Field of study: Englishby Kerri Slatushttps://hdl.handle.net/2286/R.I.3861400Doctoral DissertationAcademic thesesiii, 261 pages114647889341630347816154552adminIn CopyrightAll Rights Reserved20162018-05-01T06:51:56TextEnglish LiteratureGendermedicineModernismWomen patientsMedicine in literaturePsychology in literatureAmerican literature--Women authors--History and criticism.American LiteratureAmerican literature--19th century--History and criticism.American literature--20th century--History and criticism.