Medicine is War: The Martial Metaphor in Victorian Literature and Culture

Medicine is War: The Martial Metaphor in Victorian Literature and Culture, Lorenzo Servitje (State University of New York Press, 2021)

Medicine Is War shows how literature mediated a convergence of militarism and medicine in Victorian culture via a widespread martial metaphor. Servitje establishes literature’s pivotal role in shaping what war has made thinkable and actionable under medicine’s increasing jurisdiction: Medicine Is War reveals how, in our own moment, the metaphor remains conducive to harming as much as healing, to control as much as empowerment.