Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of plates
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Notes on contributors
- Preface
- List of abbreviations
- 1 An interdisciplinary approach to medical writing in Early Modern English
- 2 Medical texts in 1500–1700 and the corpus of Early Modern English Medical Texts
- 3 Medical literacies and medical culture in early modern England
- 4 Verbs of knowing: discursive practices in early modern vernacular medicine
- 5 Defining in Early Modern English medical texts
- 6 Dissemination and appropriation of medical knowledge: humoral theory in Early Modern English medical writing and lay texts
- 7 Code-switching in Early Modern English medical writing
- 8 New arguments for new audiences: a corpus-based analysis of interpersonal strategies in Early Modern English medical recipes
- 9 Efficacy phrases in Early Modern English medical recipes
- 10 Medical pamphlets: controversy and advertising
- 11 The development of specialized discourse in the Philosophical Transactions
- 12 The expression of stance in early (1665–1712) publications of the Philosophical Transactions and other contemporary medical prose: innovations in a pioneering discourse
- Appendix A Raw data tables corresponding to Figures 4.3–4.14
- Appendix B Raw data tables corresponding to Figures 8.1–8.4
- Appendix C Stance markers used in the analysis in Chapter 12
- Appendix D Preliminary list of texts in the corpus of Early Modern English Medical Texts (EMEMT)
- Bibliography
- Index
6 - Dissemination and appropriation of medical knowledge: humoral theory in Early Modern English medical writing and lay texts
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 May 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of plates
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Notes on contributors
- Preface
- List of abbreviations
- 1 An interdisciplinary approach to medical writing in Early Modern English
- 2 Medical texts in 1500–1700 and the corpus of Early Modern English Medical Texts
- 3 Medical literacies and medical culture in early modern England
- 4 Verbs of knowing: discursive practices in early modern vernacular medicine
- 5 Defining in Early Modern English medical texts
- 6 Dissemination and appropriation of medical knowledge: humoral theory in Early Modern English medical writing and lay texts
- 7 Code-switching in Early Modern English medical writing
- 8 New arguments for new audiences: a corpus-based analysis of interpersonal strategies in Early Modern English medical recipes
- 9 Efficacy phrases in Early Modern English medical recipes
- 10 Medical pamphlets: controversy and advertising
- 11 The development of specialized discourse in the Philosophical Transactions
- 12 The expression of stance in early (1665–1712) publications of the Philosophical Transactions and other contemporary medical prose: innovations in a pioneering discourse
- Appendix A Raw data tables corresponding to Figures 4.3–4.14
- Appendix B Raw data tables corresponding to Figures 8.1–8.4
- Appendix C Stance markers used in the analysis in Chapter 12
- Appendix D Preliminary list of texts in the corpus of Early Modern English Medical Texts (EMEMT)
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Introduction and aim of the chapter
The aim of this chapter is to demonstrate how the basic doctrine of humoral theory, with its applications, was disseminated and appropriated in early modern England. The early modern period provides a diversified picture of evolving practices of both professional and lay writing. The educational levels of authors and audiences varied, and we can expect multiple appropriations of basic cultural products like medical commonplaces that formed part of shared meanings, attitudes and values.1 They found expression in symbolic forms, such as performances, artefacts and texts (Harris 1995: 1). Matters of health are of general interest, and knowledge of the basic doctrines must have penetrated all layers of society in some form. Humoral theory was derived from learned science and originated in academic settings, but in the fifteenth century it became modified for broader audiences: details became less specific; simplified applications were added for everyday use; and the underlying text type often changed from expository to instructive (Taavitsainen 2005).
Meanings and attitudes are encoded in texts, and an analysis of semantic and pragmatic features of language use provides a means to probe into them. My point of departure is the occurrence of the lexical item ‘humour’ in different contexts, as its occurrences should reveal how the humoral theory was disseminated and appropriated in the early modern period.
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- Medical Writing in Early Modern English , pp. 94 - 114Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011
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