Document Type
Article
Publication Date
Fall 12-1-2021
Publication Title
Literature and Medicine
Volume
39
Issue
2
First Page
249
Last Page
272
DOI
10.1353/lm.2021.0023
Abstract
This essay examines Sinclair Lewis's Arrowsmith (1925) through the ethical and ecological contingencies of U.S. tropical medicine in the early twentieth century. With an eye kept on the novel's well-known "St. Hubert " chapters, the essay elaborates the dangerous compromises that even the most well-intentioned medical professionals make in the name of scientific progress. The novel, I argue, summons and yet moves beyond the traditional outbreak narrative to unravel the various political, economic, and cultural strands of U.S. imperial medicine. The novel's platform for applied sanitary science helps me revisit famed public health campaigns, particularly those from Cuba and Panama, and draw out new ways of understanding race and place in the context of global health intervention.
Recommended Citation
Fitz Gerald, James. "“These Jests of God”: Arrowsmith and Tropical Medicine’s Racial Ecology." Literature and Medicine, vol. 39 no. 2, 2021, p. 249-272.
Included in
English Language and Literature Commons, Environmental Public Health Commons, Epidemiology Commons, Film and Media Studies Commons, International Public Health Commons, Medical Humanities Commons, Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies Commons
