Där litterärt språk möter läkarspråk : Litteraturens potential för undervisning i medicinsk humaniora
(2025) In Tidskrift för litteraturvetenskap 54(2). p.98-123- Abstract
- This article discusses how fiction and its collisions between different linguistic registers have both literary and pedagogical potential. Taking its point of departure in literary texts used in the medical humanities teaching at the medical school at Lund University, various types of collisions between literary language and medical language are analysed. To conceptualize the collisions between the two registers, the article uses Mikhail Bakhtin's concept of heteroglossia and Jahan Ramazani's development of the concept in relation to poetry. The article identifies three different types of collisions. Firstly, collisions that entails a conflict, which shows the shortcomings and weak points of the medical language and perspective, and the... (More)
- This article discusses how fiction and its collisions between different linguistic registers have both literary and pedagogical potential. Taking its point of departure in literary texts used in the medical humanities teaching at the medical school at Lund University, various types of collisions between literary language and medical language are analysed. To conceptualize the collisions between the two registers, the article uses Mikhail Bakhtin's concept of heteroglossia and Jahan Ramazani's development of the concept in relation to poetry. The article identifies three different types of collisions. Firstly, collisions that entails a conflict, which shows the shortcomings and weak points of the medical language and perspective, and the danger of being absorbed in an abstract objectivity in the encounter with individual patients. Secondly, collisions that create an illusionary conflict, which are not as polemical but rather emphasize that the medical language needs to be supplemented with other languages and perspectives. Thirdly, collisions that instead emphasises a coexistence between the different languages and how medical language constitutes a linguistic resource in literature.
The analysis is contextualized with previous research in medical education and narrative medicine and three aspects of the potential of the collisions are discussed in depth: defamiliarization, perspective and epistemological diversity. The linguistic collisions capture how medical language can be used as a literary device. At the same time, they are emblematic of the dual character of the medical profession: a profession that, on the one hand, is firmly rooted in the natural sciences, and on the other is humanistic in a broad sense – a caring profession characterized by patient encounters that contain life stories, feelings, and experiences. The article places itself both within the field of medical humanities, and, through its material and its focus on literary form and linguistic collisions, within the field of literary studies. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/303ba051-3703-41a2-9e9e-c87cb190a5e0
- author
- Hultman, Anna LU ; Bernhardsson, Katarina LU and Skagert, Stina LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2025-02
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- medical humanities, narrative medicine, medical education, heteroglossia, Mikhail Bakhtin, Jahan Ramazani
- categories
- Higher Education
- in
- Tidskrift för litteraturvetenskap
- volume
- 54
- issue
- 2
- pages
- 98 - 123
- publisher
- Föreningen för utgivande av Tidskrift för litteraturvetenskap
- ISSN
- 2001-094X
- DOI
- 10.54797/tfl.v54i2.23545
- language
- Swedish
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 303ba051-3703-41a2-9e9e-c87cb190a5e0
- date added to LUP
- 2025-01-16 20:43:33
- date last changed
- 2025-04-04 14:15:39
@article{303ba051-3703-41a2-9e9e-c87cb190a5e0,
abstract = {{This article discusses how fiction and its collisions between different linguistic registers have both literary and pedagogical potential. Taking its point of departure in literary texts used in the medical humanities teaching at the medical school at Lund University, various types of collisions between literary language and medical language are analysed. To conceptualize the collisions between the two registers, the article uses Mikhail Bakhtin's concept of heteroglossia and Jahan Ramazani's development of the concept in relation to poetry. The article identifies three different types of collisions. Firstly, collisions that entails a conflict, which shows the shortcomings and weak points of the medical language and perspective, and the danger of being absorbed in an abstract objectivity in the encounter with individual patients. Secondly, collisions that create an illusionary conflict, which are not as polemical but rather emphasize that the medical language needs to be supplemented with other languages and perspectives. Thirdly, collisions that instead emphasises a coexistence between the different languages and how medical language constitutes a linguistic resource in literature.<br/><br/>The analysis is contextualized with previous research in medical education and narrative medicine and three aspects of the potential of the collisions are discussed in depth: defamiliarization, perspective and epistemological diversity. The linguistic collisions capture how medical language can be used as a literary device. At the same time, they are emblematic of the dual character of the medical profession: a profession that, on the one hand, is firmly rooted in the natural sciences, and on the other is humanistic in a broad sense – a caring profession characterized by patient encounters that contain life stories, feelings, and experiences. The article places itself both within the field of medical humanities, and, through its material and its focus on literary form and linguistic collisions, within the field of literary studies.}},
author = {{Hultman, Anna and Bernhardsson, Katarina and Skagert, Stina}},
issn = {{2001-094X}},
keywords = {{medical humanities; narrative medicine; medical education; heteroglossia; Mikhail Bakhtin; Jahan Ramazani}},
language = {{swe}},
number = {{2}},
pages = {{98--123}},
publisher = {{Föreningen för utgivande av Tidskrift för litteraturvetenskap}},
series = {{Tidskrift för litteraturvetenskap}},
title = {{Där litterärt språk möter läkarspråk : Litteraturens potential för undervisning i medicinsk humaniora}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.54797/tfl.v54i2.23545}},
doi = {{10.54797/tfl.v54i2.23545}},
volume = {{54}},
year = {{2025}},
}