The Retrospective Raj: Medicine, Literature and History After Empire

The Retrospective Raj: Medicine, Literature & History After Empire undertakes a detailed analysis of the use of medicine as a recurrent and defining trope of post-imperial fiction published between 1950 and 1990. The book argues that during this crucial period of recent history, when the influence and prestige of the British Empire was nearing its end, a range of contemporary novelists including J. G. Farrell, Paul Scott, John Masters, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, and Salman Rushdie identified and used medicine as a discursive paradigm through which to engage critically with the history, authority and legacy of the British Empire within their writing. Drawing on a range of literary and archival sources, this project explores the complex relationship between Britain, India and Empire through a medical humanities lens, bringing together the concerns of literary study and medical history under an interdisciplinary and original methodological framework. The Retrospective Raj is the first book of its kind to explore the 20^th^ century literary revival of Empire and the post-imperial novel through the critical medical humanities. It approaches the novels of a defining group of post-war authors and Booker Prize winners through comparative analysis, considering how they used medical history, and medical themes and metaphor to ask searching questions about how the real and imagined history of Empire continued to inform British identity long after its ending. The Retrospective Raj: Medicine, Literature & History After Empire undertakes a detailed analysis of the use of medicine as a recurrent and defining trope of post-imperial fiction published between 1950 and 1990. The book argues that during this crucial period of recent history, when the influence and prestige of the British Empire was nearing its end, a range of contemporary novelists including J. G. Farrell, Paul Scott, John Masters, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, and Salman Rushdie identified and used medicine as a discursive paradigm through which to engage critically with the history, authority and legacy of the British Empire within their writing. Drawing on a range of literary and archival sources, this work explores the complex relationship between Britain, India and Empire through a medical lens, bringing together the concerns of literary study and medical history under an interdisciplinary and original methodological framework. Contents Introduction: Retrospective Diagnosis: Medicine and Post-Imperial Literature Colonial Conditions: On Being Ill in the Anglo-Indian Novel Surgery for the Novel: Medical Practitioners in Anglo-Indian Fiction Know Your Place: Space, Environment and Medicine Death by the Bottle or the Spoon: Diet, Health and Well-Being No Such Thing as History Nowadays: Medicine, Health and the Legacy of Empire Conclusion: Imperial Sunsets Explores the 20th century literary revival of Empire and the post-imperial novel through a critical medical humanities lens.