Transplant Fictions: A Cultural Study of Organ Exchange (Palgrave Studies in Literature, Science and Medicine)

Removing an organ from one (typically dead) body and placing it in another living body challenges our most foundational ideas about boundaries between self and other, individual and social identity, life and death, health and illness. But despite these transgressions, organ transplant is a celebrated and relatively common procedure. __Transplant Fictions__ brings together a diverse set of cultural representations to understand how we have overcome the profound ideological violations represented by organ exchange in order to reimagine the concept and practice as technological and moral victories. From the plots of horror stories and sci-fi novels to sentimental romances and feel-good media reports of stranger donation, this cultural study offers a nuanced portrait of the conceptual journey of organ exchange from strange and terrible to the “gift of life.” Removing an organ from one (typically dead) body and placing it in another living body challenges our most foundational ideas about boundaries between self and other, individual and social identity, life and death, health and illness. But despite these transgressions, organ transplant is a celebrated and relatively common procedure. Transplant Fictions brings together a diverse set of cultural representations to understand how we have overcome the profound ideological violations represented by organ exchange in order to reimagine the concept and practice as technological and moral victories. From the plots of horror stories and sci-fi novels to sentimental romances and feel-good media reports of stranger donation, this cultural study offers a nuanced portrait of the conceptual journey of organ exchange from strange and terrible to the zgift of life.y Front Matter ....Pages i-vii Introduction (Emily Russell)....Pages 1-29 Corpse to Cadaver: From Body Snatching to Body Worlds (Emily Russell)....Pages 31-66 Making the Lifelike Corpse (Emily Russell)....Pages 67-111 Mortal Signs: Transplantation and the Invention of Brain Death (Emily Russell)....Pages 113-140 “The Gift of Life”: Sentiment and the Family (Emily Russell)....Pages 141-189 Murdering Hands and Mad Doctors: The Horrors of Organ Exchange (Emily Russell)....Pages 191-234 Kidneyville: Organ Exchange at the Margins (Emily Russell)....Pages 235-266 Conclusion: Speculative Medicine, Speculative Fictions (Emily Russell)....Pages 267-275 Back Matter ....Pages 277-310