{"product_id":"body-language-medicine-and-the-eighteenth-century-comic-novel-paperback-softback-9781684485703","title":"Body Language; Medicine and the Eighteenth-Century Comic Novel (Paperback \/ softback) 9781684485703","description":"\u003cfont face=\"Georgia\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"6\"\u003eBody Language\u003c\/font\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cfont size=\"5\"\u003eMedicine and the Eighteenth-Century Comic Novel\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"4\"\u003eKathleen Tamayo Alves (Author)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e9781684485703\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003ePaperback \/ softback, published 11 November 2025\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e200 pages\u003cbr\u003e23.5 x 15.6 x 1.5 cm, 0.454 kg\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eBody Language\u003c\/i\u003e examines the complex intersections of British eighteenth-century comic fiction and medical discourse. By engaging medical writings of renowned and widely-read physicians of the Enlightenment such as John Freind, Thomas Sydenham, Albrecht von Haller, John Whytt, and William Cullen, with novels of humor by Henry Fielding, Tobias Smollett, Laurence Sterne, and Charlotte Lennox, Alves explains how medicine shaped comic language by dramatizing female-specific phenomena like menstruation, hysteria, nervous disorders, and pregnancy. In these novels, the medical belief that women are incapable of bodily self-regulation becomes an imperative for policing women’s bodies and highlights the enduring shortcomings of patriarchal systems. Ultimately, these comic representations offer a counternarrative of women’s bodies, agency, and selfhood, exposing masculine anxieties about the effectiveness of marriage to regulate women’s sexuality. \u003c\/p\u003e Published by Bucknell University Press. Distributed worldwide by Rutgers University Press.\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003eIntroduction: Eighteenth-Century Medicine and Comic Representations of Women  \u003cbr\u003e 1. Leaky Writings and Leaky Bodies in Henry Fielding’\u003cbr\u003es \u003ci\u003eShamela\u003c\/i\u003e (1741) and Tobias Smollett’\u003cbr\u003es \u003ci\u003eHumphry Clinker\u003c\/i\u003e (1771)\u003cbr\u003e 2. Hysterical Language and Desiring Women in Henry Fielding’\u003cbr\u003es \u003ci\u003eJoseph Andrews\u003c\/i\u003e (1742) and \u003ci\u003eTom Jones\u003c\/i\u003e (1749)\u003cbr\u003e 3. The Maternal Body and Obstetric Authority in Laurence Sterne’\u003cbr\u003es \u003ci\u003eTristram Shandy\u003c\/i\u003e (1759) and Tobias Smollett’\u003cbr\u003es \u003ci\u003ePeregrine Pickle\u003c\/i\u003e (1751)\u003cbr\u003e 4. Romantic (Mis)Readings and Nervous Sympathy in Charlotte Lennox’\u003cbr\u003es \u003ci\u003eThe Female Quixote\u003c\/i\u003e (1752)\u003cbr\u003e Coda: Surgical Violence as a Tool of Masculine Dominance in \u003ci\u003ePoor Things\u003c\/i\u003e (2023)\u003cbr\u003e Acknowledgments\u003cbr\u003e Notes\u003cbr\u003e Bibliography\u003cbr\u003e Index\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/font\u003e","brand":"Bucknell University Press","offers":[{"title":"Brand New","offer_id":52633828327704,"sku":"9781684485703","price":27.95,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/freshlyprintedbooks.co.uk\/products\/body-language-medicine-and-the-eighteenth-century-comic-novel-paperback-softback-9781684485703","provider":"Freshly Printed Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}