John Benjamins Publishing Company
Rhetoric of death in clinical case reports and clinical tales
Abstract
Death is a taboo in Western civilization. Even healthcare fields, which are strongly familiar with the end of life, cannot avoid the tendency to soften the impact caused by talking or writing about death. Like anyone else, healthcare professionals who publish clinical case reports (ccr) tend to use euphemisms. They also have the option to use a technical lexicon that could be perceived as a range of euphemistic expressions. In this chapter we review the place of death in this professional genre. We also compare several aspects of the rhetoric of death in ccr and clinical tales. The latter, though frequently written by medical authors, are intended for a non-specialized public and have a literary communicative purpose.
Abstract
Death is a taboo in Western civilization. Even healthcare fields, which are strongly familiar with the end of life, cannot avoid the tendency to soften the impact caused by talking or writing about death. Like anyone else, healthcare professionals who publish clinical case reports (ccr) tend to use euphemisms. They also have the option to use a technical lexicon that could be perceived as a range of euphemistic expressions. In this chapter we review the place of death in this professional genre. We also compare several aspects of the rhetoric of death in ccr and clinical tales. The latter, though frequently written by medical authors, are intended for a non-specialized public and have a literary communicative purpose.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Presentation 1
-
Section I. Three disciplinary approaches to the subject of death
- Death 11
- Moral ortothanasia and the right to die 23
- In the wake of loss 35
-
Section II. Discourse analysis in health settings
- The gift of continuing to live in the body of someone else 49
- Giving meaning to illness and death 67
- Religion, collusion, and “fighting” 85
- Rhetoric of death in clinical case reports and clinical tales 97
-
Section III. Death in literary texts
- ‘Letters to Lucilius’ and death 113
- Montaigne, the essay and the end of life 125
- Memory, mothers and post-Freudian melancholia in Mercè Rodoreda’s ‘Night and Fog’ 147
- The scenography of death in contemporary poetry 167
- Beyond the limits of death 179
- Index 195
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Presentation 1
-
Section I. Three disciplinary approaches to the subject of death
- Death 11
- Moral ortothanasia and the right to die 23
- In the wake of loss 35
-
Section II. Discourse analysis in health settings
- The gift of continuing to live in the body of someone else 49
- Giving meaning to illness and death 67
- Religion, collusion, and “fighting” 85
- Rhetoric of death in clinical case reports and clinical tales 97
-
Section III. Death in literary texts
- ‘Letters to Lucilius’ and death 113
- Montaigne, the essay and the end of life 125
- Memory, mothers and post-Freudian melancholia in Mercè Rodoreda’s ‘Night and Fog’ 147
- The scenography of death in contemporary poetry 167
- Beyond the limits of death 179
- Index 195
