[Old age or the last song of the swan: A diversion through literature for a different representation]. / La vieillesse ou le dernier chant du cygne : un détour par la littérature pour une autre représentation.

Literature can be a fruitful source of inspiration for rethinking ageing. Two literary short stories, one by Thomas Mann, the other by Stefan Zweig, offer two original portraits of an old man, which may lead some to reconsider the relationship between old age and passion, and to restore the humanity of the figure of the old man.

Cicely Saunders and the Literary and Cultural Heritage of "Total Pain".

In this article, I present some of the literary and cultural influences behind hospice pioneer Cicely Saunders's idea of "total pain," a term she used from the 1960s onwards to promote the holistic approach which has since become palliative care. Existing studies imply "total pain" emerged from Saunders's own mixed career experiences and her attention to patient narratives. However, I explore how the term originates not only in Saunders's direct encounters with her patients but also in her readings of literary, philosophical, and theological texts from a range of European post-war contexts, from Viktor Frankl and Simone de Beauvoir to Martin Buber and Ladislaus Boros. Examining "total pain" in light of Saunders's reading reveals the particular intellectual milieu-often ignored-from which palliative care emerged.

Love, Death, and-No Hospital!: Assisted Dying, "Liebestod," and Existential Suffering.

Contemporary literature about assisted dying in Germany, Switzerland, and France repeatedly explores the impact of illness on romantic relationships. Faced with the imminent or experienced death of their loved one, the healthy partner is affected by existential suffering and refuses to outlive the other. This dynamic leads to (joint) suicide, echoing the literary tradition of the Liebestod, where lovers prefer death over separation. This paper examines three contemporary texts on this theme. It illustrates that while the Liebestod is depicted as a romantic death, it inherently rejects a medicalized end of life. Despite overlaps between palliative care and the notion of a "good death," palliative care is absent, as the focus is on avoiding the existential suffering from losing a beloved partner, making suicide the only viable option.

A Practice of Literary Palliation: Philippe Forest's L'Enfant éternel.

Philippe Forest's first autofictional novel, L'Enfant éternel (The eternal child), centers on the terminal illness and eventual death of the author's daughter, Pauline. While scholarly attention has been directed toward the role of the text in caring for the child, this essay addresses the absence of care for Pauline's parents and their marginalization throughout her end-of-life hospitalization. Focusing on questions of genre, agency, and legacy, I argue that the text allows for a rewriting of the previous, negative experience of care in a way that incorporates the father into care provision. This corrective rewriting understands literature as palliative in its own right, capable of retaining identity, restoring relationships, and facilitating holistic care that "adds life" to all concerned.

Hattie and Sammler: Saul Bellow's older woman and older man.

Hattie in Saul Bellow's "Leaving the Yellow House" and Sammler in Bellow's Mr. Sammler's Planet are both elderly characters. This article intends to compare the two characters from a gender perspective, to illustrate how these characters appear to experience and respond to old age and how other characters in these two fictions respond to the old age of their respective elderly characters. The comparison of these two characters in the fiction of Saul Bellow gives rise to the observation that old age is not merely a phase of negative changes but also of positive ones; ageism claims victims among both men and women whose suffering is aggravated by other kinds of injustice, such as racism and sexism.

Queer temporalities and the life course: Trans aging in Torrey Peters' Detransition, Baby (2021).

Torrey Peters' debut novel Detransition, Baby from 2021, a Women's Prize for Fiction nominee, problematizes gender norms by telling the story of three main characters: Reese, a trans woman, Ames, who de-transitioned to live as a man again, and Katrina, a Chinese and Jewish cis woman who is also Ames' lover and boss. Ames and Katrina are expecting a child and are testing the possibilities of having a non-conventional family together with Reese. Parenthood is, thus, the central theme of the novel which structures also the sections of book into the time before the conception and the weeks after it. By doing so, the temporal framework of the novel queers the linearity of heteronormative life courses on the form as well as the content level. Therefore, the interplay of form and content invites to critically investigate how the concept of trans time that challenges linearity and normative conformity (Halberstam, 2005) may provide useful insights into trans aging and the life course through this literary representation. Following, contemporary feminist theorists' commitments to negotiate what makes "life more livable for those whose gender presentation, identity, or bodily experience have been judged abnormal, nonexistent, or impossible" (Karhu, 2022, 304-305), this paper aims at carrying out a critical feminist literary analysis of trans aging, queer life courses and the thereof related gendered norms in Peters' novel. By relying predominantly on feminist poststructuralist theories (Butler 2004) and cultural aging studies (Maierhofer, 2019), it is the aim to challenge normativity and limited social norms through this critical literary reading.

'Mrs. Don't Care': refusing modern Black motherhood in Nella Larsen's Quicksand.

This essay examines the portrayal of modern Black motherhood in Nella Larsen's Harlem Renaissance novel, Quicksand (1928). Writing in a cultural landscape dominated by discourses of racial uplift, scientific motherhood and eugenics, I argue that Larsen critiques and ultimately refuses the limited literary, medical and political terms available for representing Black motherhood in the early twentieth century. My readings centre Larsen's understudied career as a nurse; prior to becoming a writer, Larsen worked as Head Nurse at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama and as a public health nurse for the Department of Health in the Bronx. I consider how this professional experience informed her fictional depiction of modern Black motherhood, drawing on archival materials to demonstrate how her novel complicates contemporaneous medical and cultural attitudes towards Black motherhood and resists the eugenic demands delineating what constitutes 'good' and 'bad' motherhood. Engaging contemporary Black feminist theories of refusal and Black motherhood, I show how Quicksand is not only a critique of racist stigmatising discourses and practices but also of how racism limits the ways in which Black mothers' complexity has historically been represented.

'What's a D and C between friends?' Space, intimacy and the medicalisation of unmotherhood in modernist literature.

This essay theorises what 'unmotherhood'-or, living outside of motherhood-means within the specific context of 'the modern'. Unmotherhood is an actively constructed state; it is explored through the parameters of agentive choice, social pressure and state control; and at the turn-of-the-20th-century novels articulate this state through specific vocabularies of contemporaneous phenomena of modernity. I look to four novels representative of four forms of unmotherhood: Tess Slesinger's The Unpossessed depicts a somewhat voluntary abortion; H.D.'s Asphodel (and its sister novel Bid Me to Live) are fictional representations of the author's own stillbirth; Jean Rhys's Good Morning, Midnight depicts a woman's life in the wake of her newborn son's death and Nella Larsen's Quicksand is a narrative dependent on the protagonist's refusal to marry because of her equation of marriage with conception. Reading these narratives together affords us the opportunity to consider what 'unmotherhood' means as a constructed state in and of itself, beyond the presumed negative, passive state of the 'not' or the 'not yet'. Through this analysis, I define 'unmotherhood' as: (1) a state mediated through medical knowledge, objects, spaces and authority figures; (2) an experience narrated through vocabularies pulled from phenomena closely associated with 20th-century modernity and (3) a role dynamically shaped through compulsory heterosexuality embedded in familial relationships. In these three ways, my analysis of the selected novels defines unmotherhood as a permanent, transient, chosen, enforced and-contradictory as it all may be-a legible and definable experience.

Feminist retroviruses to white Sharia: Gender "science fan fiction" on 4Chan.

This article demonstrates-based on an interpretive discourse analysis of three types of memes (Rabid Feminists, Women's Bodies, Policy Ideas) and secondary thread discourse on 4chan's "Politically Incorrect" discussion board-two key findings: (1) the existence of a gendered hate based scientific discourse, "science fan fiction," in online spaces and (2) how gender "science fan fiction" is an outcome of the male supremacist cosmology, by producing and justifying resentment against white women as being both inherently untrustworthy (politically, sexually, intellectually) and dangerous. This perspective-which combines hatred and distrust of women with white nationalist anxieties about demographic shifts, racial integrity, and sexuality-then motivates misogynist policy ideas including total domination of women or their removal. 4chan users employ this discourse to "scientifically" substantiate claims of white male supremacy, the fundamental untrustworthiness of white women, and to argue white women's inherent threat to white male supremacist goals.

Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes, and gout.

Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, was an experienced physician who treated gouty patients. A gouty character appears in The Adventure of the Missing Three-Quarter, a Sherlock Holmes novel. This offers the possibility of discussing gout from the peculiar perspective of a medical writer in light of the historical-medical context of the time. This study was conducted using Conan Doyle's autobiographical, scientific, and literary primary sources, as well as past and current medical literature. The Adventure of the Missing Three-Quarter was autobiographical. Conan Doyle himself was a rugby player and his wife died of tuberculosis. Furthermore, in 1884, in The Lancet, he described the hereditary case of a female gouty patient, presenting with ocular manifestations. In agreement with the concept of rich man's gout, the gouty patient of Sherlock Holmes' story, Lord Mount James, was a rich irascible noble but he was not addicted to the pleasures of food and sex. Following the usual funny representation of gouty patients, Conan Doyle made fun of Lord Mount James, but he misquoted a true case of gout cited in the literature. In his scientific and literary production on gout, Conan Doyle stuck to the most updated medical concepts of the time, demonstrating an uncommon knowledge of scientific literature.

"Listening Between the Lines": Soundscapes in Yusef Komunyakaa's Poetry.

Yusef Komunyakaa's poetry is widely acclaimed for its sui generis soundscapes, which shows the poet's highly sensitive auditory perception in his literary creations. Soundscapes, in his poetry, play a pivotal role in revealing social malaise-racial inequalities and gender-biased black relations-in the multiracial US. This article thus explores race- and gender-related societal problems mirrored in Komunyakaa's poetry through the prism of soundscapes. It first aims to examine how soundscapes are presented between poetic lines as a culture carrier, and then investigates the disciplinary power and oppositional function of soundscapes. Combining textual close reading with interdisciplinary research methodology, this article brings to light the complexity and specificity of soundscapes in Komunyakaa's poetry. For one thing, the soundscape constructed by the privileged serves as an oppressive force to discipline the disempowered groups; for another, the soundscape the underprivileged produce is utilized as an instrument of resistance and healing, offering them a sonic weapon to deconstruct the oppressive sound imperialism as well as construct the affective community of African Americans. This study not only adds to the research on Komunyakaa's poetry by offering a renewed viewpoint of excavating this poet and his political proposition of equality and equity, but also attracts academic attention to the role of literary soundscape in Afro-American literature in revealing the long-standing societal problems in the US.

Dostoevsky's Doctor: Active Love in Modern Medicine and The Brothers Karamazov.

In this essay, the author draws from The Brothers Karamazov, a novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky, to consider the idea of love and its relevance to burnout in modern medicine. They argue that active love, as espoused by one of Dostoevsky's characters, might help clinicians care for their patients even in moments of exhaustion or disillusion. Coherent with Dostoevsky's Christian background, the author examines active love alongside the Christian concept of grace and Simone Weil's concept of attention. These explorations may yield fresh insights for clinicians struggling with burnout in health care, as well as those striving to master the timeless art of caregiving.

Melville's "Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-Street": The Vicissitudes of Treating a Difficult Patient.

Taking the liberty of imagining the lawyer in Melville's "Bartleby, the Scrivener" as narrator/therapist and Bartleby as patient, this article, written with the therapist/reader in mind, traces the vicissitudes of countertransference and speculates on what constitutes a "good enough" therapeutic effort.

Authority and medical expertise: Arthur Conan Doyle in The Idler.

Arthur Conan Doyle's medical and writing careers intertwined and his work has a history of being read in the light of his medical expertise. He wrote at a time when the professionalisation and specialisation of medicine had resulted in an increasing distance between the profession and the public, yet general practitioners relied financially on maintaining good relationships with their patients and popular medical journalism proliferated. A variety of contrasting voices often disseminated narratives of medical science. These conflicting developments raised questions of authority and expertise in relation to the construction of medicine in the popular imagination: how is knowledge constructed? Who should disseminate it? How and by whom is authority conferred? How can the general population judge experts in medical science? These are questions explored more widely in Conan Doyle's writing as he examines the relationship between expertise and authority. In the early 1890s, Conan Doyle wrote for the popular, mass-market periodical The Idler: An Illustrated Magazine His contributions to it address these questions of authority and expertise for a lay audience. First establishing the medical context of doctor/patient relationships in which these questions arose, this article undertakes a close reading of these mostly rarely studied single-issue stories and articles as a means of ascertaining how Conan Doyle and his illustrators identified the relationship between competing narratives, expertise and authority. It argues that rather than maintaining a distance between public and professional, Conan Doyle's illustrated work demonstrates to his readers that there are ways to successfully navigate the appearance of authority and recognise expertise as they confront entangled representations of advances in medical science.

[Application characteristics of Qugu (CV 2) in ancient and modern literature].

To summarize and analyze the clinical application characteristics of Qugu (CV 2) in ancient and modern literature based on data mining technology. The Chinese Medical Code (the 5th edition) was taken as the retrieval source of ancient literature, while the CNKI, Wanfang, and VIP databases were taken as the retrieval source of modern literature. The indications of Qugu (CV 2) used alone or with compatible acupoints, compatible acupoints, acupuncture-moxibustion manipulation, etc., were systematically sorted out. As a result, a total of 140 articles of ancient literature were included. The common indications of Qugu (CV 2) used alone were urinary retention, profuse vaginal discharge and hernia. The common indications of Qugu (CV 2) used with compatible acupoints were profuse vaginal discharge, stranguria and hernia. Sixty-four acupoints were concurrently used with Qugu (CV 2), Qugu (CV 2) was mainly compatible with acupoints of conception vessel, bladder meridian and liver meridian, and the high-frequency acupoints included Zhongji (CV 3), Guanyuan (CV 4) and Sanyinjiao (SP 6); five-shu points were the most used special acupoints, and moxibustion therapy was often used. A total of 73 modern articles were included. The common indications of Qugu (CV 2) used alone were urinary retention, erectile dysfunction and chronic prostatitis; the common indications of Qugu (CV 2) used with compatible scupoints were urinary retention, erectile dysfunction and prostatic hyperplasia. Thirty-six acupoints were concurrently used with Qugu (CV 2), Qugu (CV 2) was mainly compatible with acupoints of conception vessel, kidney meridian and spleen meridian, and the high-frequency acupoints included Zhongji (CV 3), Guanyuan (CV 4) and Zusanli (ST 36); front-mu points were the most used special acupoints, and acupuncture therapy was often used. Qugu (CV 2) treats a wide range of diseases in ancient times, the distant treatment effectiveness of acupoints is emphasized; and it mainly treats local diseases in modern times, the nearby treatment effectiveness of acupoints is emphasized.

[Pity as pain: Narrative Medicine and Melville's "Bartleby"]. / Mitleid als Schmerz: Narrative Medizin und Melvilles "Bartleby".

BACKGROUND: Narrative Medicine is an interdisciplinary concept that joins literary texts and theory on the one hand with medical education on the other. It suggests that specific skills can be practiced by reflecting about literature and the arts, which represent existential human experiences. These skills are narrative competence, tolerance for ambiguity, changing one's perspective, empathy, and self-care. OBJECTIVES AND MATERIALS: This article describes a Narrative Medicine course and focuses on one unit in which Herman Melville's short story "Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street" was discussed. METHODS: In combining participant observation and a close reading of the short story, the article describes how students responded to the text and how "Bartleby" speaks to central topics in medical practice, such as pain management and the significance (and limits) of pity and empathy. RESULTS: Melville's text represents pain and empathy in complex and ambiguous ways. In presenting a compassionate narrator who ultimately fails to empathize with the pain he perceives in his employee, the story challenges readers to reflect on the complexities of dealing with the suffering of others and invites a discussion about professionalism, personal values, and expectations. CONCLUSIONS: Literary texts in a medical classroom can be a productive resource to practice and critically discuss competences identified in the National Competency-Based Learning Objective Catalogue for Medicine 2.0.

Application characteristics of Qugu (CV 2) in ancient and modern literature / 中国针灸

To summarize and analyze the clinical application characteristics of Qugu (CV 2) in ancient and modern literature based on data mining technology. The Chinese Medical Code (the 5th edition) was taken as the retrieval source of ancient literature, while the CNKI, Wanfang, and VIP databases were taken as the retrieval source of modern literature. The indications of Qugu (CV 2) used alone or with compatible acupoints, compatible acupoints, acupuncture-moxibustion manipulation, etc., were systematically sorted out. As a result, a total of 140 articles of ancient literature were included. The common indications of Qugu (CV 2) used alone were urinary retention, profuse vaginal discharge and hernia. The common indications of Qugu (CV 2) used with compatible acupoints were profuse vaginal discharge, stranguria and hernia. Sixty-four acupoints were concurrently used with Qugu (CV 2), Qugu (CV 2) was mainly compatible with acupoints of conception vessel, bladder meridian and liver meridian, and the high-frequency acupoints included Zhongji (CV 3), Guanyuan (CV 4) and Sanyinjiao (SP 6); five-shu points were the most used special acupoints, and moxibustion therapy was often used. A total of 73 modern articles were included. The common indications of Qugu (CV 2) used alone were urinary retention, erectile dysfunction and chronic prostatitis; the common indications of Qugu (CV 2) used with compatible scupoints were urinary retention, erectile dysfunction and prostatic hyperplasia. Thirty-six acupoints were concurrently used with Qugu (CV 2), Qugu (CV 2) was mainly compatible with acupoints of conception vessel, kidney meridian and spleen meridian, and the high-frequency acupoints included Zhongji (CV 3), Guanyuan (CV 4) and Zusanli (ST 36); front-mu points were the most used special acupoints, and acupuncture therapy was often used. Qugu (CV 2) treats a wide range of diseases in ancient times, the distant treatment effectiveness of acupoints is emphasized; and it mainly treats local diseases in modern times, the nearby treatment effectiveness of acupoints is emphasized.