Poetization of Illness A Study of German-language Literature in the 20th Century

This book draws on historical sources and current research findings, skillfully integrating theory and text analysis. Through the examination of specific works, it discusses the aesthetic construction and conceptual transformation of discourses on illness. The book closely links historical contexts and arrives at compelling conclusions through astute analysis and interpretation of the texts, offering significant academic value. The writing is lively yet precise, demonstrating a solid methodological foundation, a broad theoretical perspective, and the author's ability to grasp complex subjects.

1. Foreword.- 2. Introduction.- 3. Elements for a genealogy of the concept of illness in european discourses.- 4. The Relationship between literature and medicine as a subject of analysis in cultural sciences.- 5. The Aestheticization Of Illness.- 6. The Metaphor Of Illness.- 7. The Dramatization Of Illness-Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s Play The Physicists.- 8. The Significance Of Illness-Thomas Bernhard’s Debut Novel Frost.

Liu Dongyao, born in 1987, completed her Ph.D. at Beijing Foreign Studies University in 2017, obtaining a doctoral degree in German Studies. During her studies, she was supported by the China Scholarship Council and completed a joint Ph.D. program at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. She is currently an associate professor at the University of Science and Technology Beijing. Her main research areas include German-language literature of the twentieth century as well as body and disease theories.