Midwifery as an Occupation and Identity in Jennifer Worth's Call the Midwife.

IF 1.2 0 HUMANITIES, MULTIDISCIPLINARY
Zlatina Nikolova
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引用次数: 0

Abstract

An autobiographical account of Jennifer Worth's life as a midwife in the East End of the 1950s, Call the Midwife (2002), explores a world populated largely by women. Worth's stories of motherhood's anxiety, pain, joy, and occasionally unspeakable grief are underscored by descriptions of the tools and surgical procedures performed by the dedicated midwives of Nonnatus House. This essay reflects on the construction of the figure of the midwife through the materiality of the objects and tools of her occupation, and the performance of surgical procedures. Worth's accounts of medical procedures or the use of tools establish the individuals of her narrative as midwives first, and as women second. In the eyes of everyone: mothers, fathers, and society as a whole, the midwife is defined by her profession, from her distinctive uniform to her skillset and tools, and by her commitment to her community. Drawing on the history of midwifery, thing theory, and the broader contexts of post-World War II London, this essay analyses Worth's text in relation to questions of female identity and thing theory.

在詹妮弗·沃斯的《呼唤助产士》中,助产士作为一种职业和身份。
《呼叫助产士》(2002)是一部讲述詹妮弗·沃斯在20世纪50年代东区作为助产士生活的自传体小说,探索了一个以女性为主的世界。沃斯的故事讲述了母性的焦虑、痛苦、快乐,以及偶尔难以言表的悲伤,这些故事通过对Nonnatus House的敬业助产士所使用的工具和手术过程的描述来强调。这篇文章通过她的职业对象和工具的物质性以及手术过程的表现来反思助产士形象的建构。沃斯对医疗程序或工具使用的描述确立了她叙事中的个人首先是助产士,其次是女性。在每个人的眼中:母亲、父亲和整个社会,助产士是由她的职业定义的,从她独特的制服到她的技能和工具,以及她对社区的承诺。借助助产学的历史、物论和二战后伦敦的更广泛背景,本文分析了沃斯的文本与女性身份和物论问题的关系。
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来源期刊
Journal of Medical Humanities
Journal of Medical Humanities HUMANITIES, MULTIDISCIPLINARY-
CiteScore
1.90
自引率
11.10%
发文量
33
期刊介绍: Journal of Medical Humanities publishes original papers that reflect its enlarged focus on interdisciplinary inquiry in medicine and medical education. Such inquiry can emerge in the following ways: (1) from the medical humanities, which includes literature, history, philosophy, and bioethics as well as those areas of the social and behavioral sciences that have strong humanistic traditions; (2) from cultural studies, a multidisciplinary activity involving the humanities; women''s, African-American, and other critical studies; media studies and popular culture; and sociology and anthropology, which can be used to examine medical institutions, practice and education with a special focus on relations of power; and (3) from pedagogical perspectives that elucidate what and how knowledge is made and valued in medicine, how that knowledge is expressed and transmitted, and the ideological basis of medical education.
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