Abstract

HIDALGO-BALSERA, Agustín  and  CANTABRANA, Begoña. Medicine in the game of literary creation. Role of the disease in the novelistic work of Ian McEwan. Rev Med Cine [online]. 2023, vol.19, n.1, pp.79-102.  Epub Apr 01, 2024. ISSN 1885-5210.  https://dx.doi.org/10.14201/rmc.31202.

Literature and medicine are narrative acts in which, indistinctly, one can contributetotheformation of theother. Therefore, it is not anecdotal that different aspects of medicine contribute to defining the profile of literary characters. In this work we analyze the novelistic work of Ian McEwan to identify the aspects related to illness and medicine to which the author has resorted to make the plot of his novels and outline his characters. We have also selected aspects related to scientific research given that the author frequently resorts to the ethics of research and the role of scientificresearch and technological development in society and politics. We have analyzed 16 novels in which we have identified 16 categories of health problems, some of which are repeated in different works. We have been able to assign 64 aspects of medical o rscientifi cinterest to these categories, of which psychiatric and behavioral disorders, followed by differental lusions to science and cancer, are the most frequent. They are followed by those related to neurology and toxicology. Rarely do Ian McEwan's novels contain first-person descriptions of illness; most can be classified as novels that contain incursions into different pathologies or medical acts as expressive resources within the literary work. The autor also raises issues related to scientific research, the contribution of different sciences to social development, and point sout some thoughts on the development of medicine and research ethics.

Keywords : literature; medicine; psychiatric disorders; neurological disorders; cancer; scientific research; bioethics; research ethics.

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