Handbook of Popular Culture and Biomedicine (eBook)

Knowledge in the Life Sciences as Cultural Artefact

Arno Görgen, German Alfonso Nunez, Heiner Fangerau (Herausgeber)

eBook Download: PDF

2018 | 1st ed. 2019
VII, 385 Seiten
Springer International Publishing (Verlag)
978-3-319-90677-5 (ISBN)

Infos

This handbook explores the ways biomedicine and pop culture interact while simultaneously introducing the reader with the tools and ideas behind this new field of enquiry. From comic books to health professionals, from the arts to genetics, from sci-fi to medical education, from TV series to ethics, it offers different entry points to an exciting and central aspect of contemporary culture: how and what we learn about (and from) scientific knowledge and its representation in pop culture. Divided into three sections the handbook surveys the basics, the micro-, and the macroaspects of this interaction between specialized knowledge and cultural production: After the introduction of basic concepts of and approaches to the topic from a variety of disciplines, the respective theories and methods are applied in specific case studies. The final section is concerned with larger social and historical trends of the use of biomedical knowledge in popular culture. Presenting over twenty-five original articles from international scholars with different disciplinary backgrounds, this handbook introduces the topic of pop culture and biomedicine to both new and mature researchers alike. The articles, all complete with a rich source of further references, are aimed at being a sincere entry point to researchers and academic educators interested in this somewhat unexplored field of culture and biomedicine.

From 2008 to 2014, Prof Dr Fangerau was professor of 'History, Philosophy and Ethics of medicine' and founding Director of the Institute of the History, Philosophy and Ethics of Medicine, Ulm University. Between 2014 and 2015, Prof Dr Fangerau held a professorship for 'History and Ethics of Medicine', University of Cologne, while acting as director of the Institute for the History and Ethics of Medicine at the same institution. In 2016, he has been appointed Director of the Institute for the History, Philosophy and Ethics of Medicine, University of Düsseldorf. He has published more than a hundred articles in a variety of subjects related to the history and ethics of medicine, as well as two monographs. Additionally, he has co-edited 9 books, three of them with Springer (one handbook on research ethics with C. Lenk and G. Duttge, one book analysing the institutional and intellectual links between urologists in both the Federal Republic and the German Democratic Republic and one book on the history of the German Association of Child and Adolescence Psychiatry between 1940 and 1960). His main focus of research is the history of biomedicine in the late 19th and 20th centuries, the history and ethics of psychiatry and network analyses in the history of medicine.

Mr Görgen received his M.A.in 2008 from the University of Augsburg, where he studied European cultural history. From 2009 to 2017 he has worked with Heiner Fangerau at the Institutes of the History, Philosophy and Ethics of Medicine at Ulm University, University of Cologne and Heinrich Heine Universität Düsseldorf. Since 2018, he is researching 'horror-game-politics' and specifically bio-horror games at the HKB Bern University of the Arts. He has published extensively in the field of bioethics, biomedicine and popular culture, and possesses a strong background in discourse analysis, literary theory, and game studies. Besides medical tropes in pop culture, his research interests include science communication, media history of child abuse and child protection, the bioethics of posthumanism, eHealth and others.

Dr German Alfonso Nunez Having recently received his Ph.D. from the Transnational Art, Identity and Nation Research Centre (TrAIN) at the University of the Arts London, today Dr Nunez holds a São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) fellowship and is currently based at the Faculty of Philosophy, Languages and Human Sciences (FFLCH) of the University of São Paulo (USP). A past committee member of the Computers and the History of Art Group (CHArt, London) and contributing writer for the Studio International journal (New York/London), his research is concerned with the historical development of artistic practices that intersect with technology and science. Apart from his scholarly research, he has been a practicing artist for the past ten years, presenting his artworks in more than 20 exhibitions worldwide. In 2011, alongside his art collective [+zero], he was nominated for the prestigious PIPA Contemporary Art award prize, in Brazil.

Inhalt

Contents 5
The Medicalization of Popular Culture: Epistemical, Ethical and Aesthetical Structures of Biomedical Knowledge as Cultural Artefact 8
Introduction 8
Culture and Communication 10
Science and Medicalization 12
Scientific Knowledge in Popular Culture 13
Conclusions, Necessities, Solutions 16
References 18
Part I: Theories and Methods 20
Knowledge Production Between Popular Culture and Scientific Culture 21
References 28
Media 29
Cool Geeks, Dangerous Nerds, Entrepreneurial Scientists and Idealistic Physicians? Exploring Science and Medicine in Popular Culture 30
Introduction 30
Interactions Between Science, Research, Biomedicine and Popular Culture 31
Science, Medicine and the Public 32
Fictional Representations of Scientists, Physicians and Psychiatrists 34
The Public Communication of Science and Biomedicine 38
Challenges and Outlook 39
References 41
Media 44
Biomedicine and Bioethics 45
Introduction 45
Biological Medicine and Biomedicine 45
Biomedical Fields and Protagonists 47
Biomedical Culture 49
Bioethics 51
Using Bioethical Approaches to Analyse Pop Culture Content 53
Bioethics as an Analytical Approach to Contemporary Cultural Production: The Example of Computer Games 54
Conclusion 56
References 56
Media 59
Advantages and Disadvantages of Pop-­Cultural Artifacts for Exploring Bioethical Issues 60
Introduction 60
Advantages 61
Pleasure 62
Experience of Emotion 62
Knowledge 63
Getting Us to See the World Differently 64
Getting Us to Feel Differently 65
Categorizing the World Differently 65
Freedom of the Imagination 66
Disadvantages 67
Skepticism About Art’s Value 67
Responding to the Skepticism About Art’s Cognitive Value 68
References 71
Media 73
Narrative 74
Narrative in Scientific Texts 75
Narrativity and Fictionality 77
Intertextuality and Referentiality 79
Conclusions 79
References 80
Media 81
Rhetoric of Popular Culture and Representations of Biomedicine 82
Clarification of Terms and Questions 82
Methods for Study 83
The Method of Homology 84
The Pattern of Otherness 86
Otherness and Homology 87
References 89
Popular Culture and the Dissemination of Knowledge 91
Popular Culture as Well Liked by Many People 91
Popular Culture as a Residual Category 92
Popular Culture as a Social Category 93
Popular Culture as Folk Culture 93
Popular Culture as Mass Culture 94
Popular Culture as Site of Struggle 95
Conclusion 95
References 96
Images and Self-Evidence 97
Introduction 97
Current Research on Self-Evidence 98
Generators of Self-Evidence 101
Three Case Studies: Writing Curves, Radiography and Neuroimaging 103
Writing Curves 103
Radiography 105
Neuroimaging 107
Conclusion 109
References 110
The Visual Claim Within Medical Science and Popular Culture 116
Introduction 116
The Anthropological Claim: Or Why Man Strives for Images 117
Our Striving for the Image 119
References 122
Part II: Case Studies 123
Medicalized Screens from the Cold War to the Social Web 124
Introduction 124
Archaeology of Midcentury Medical Media 125
Medical Reality TV: Boston Med 127
Digital Fingerprints on Medicalized Screens 131
Conclusion: Mobile Medicalized Screens 134
References 135
Media 137
Insights into Insights: Visual Narratives of Medical Imaging and Intervention Technologies and the Popular Viscourse 138
Defining “Medical Narrative” 139
Insights of Imaging 141
Reviewing Diagnostic Vision(s) 143
Intersections of Medical Viscourse 148
Closed Circuit: Doctor–Patient Communication 151
References 153
Media 154
The Audiovisual Process of Creating Evidence – Science Television Imagining the Brain 156
Introduction 156
Three Levels of Meaning Making in Science TV Programs 158
The Gesture of Pointing – An Episode of the BBC Two Series Horizon 160
Aesthetic Stagings and Metaphoricity in an Episode of Through the Wormhole 163
Metaphoric Meaning Making: Das automatische Gehirn 170
Conclusion 175
References 176
Media 177
Medical History’s Graphic Power in  American True-Adventure Comic Books of the 1940s 178
The New True-Adventure Comic Books and Their Success 179
Action Graphics at Work: Images That Lead the Text Rather Than Following It 183
What the Comic Books of the 1930s Owed to the New Photojournalism of the 1920s 186
Illustration Mode: Where the Art Is Subordinated to the Text 187
Concluding Observations 192
References 193
Medical Narratives in the South African Novel: Case Study of Chris Karsten’s Trilogy The Skin Collector (2012), The Skinner’s Revenge (2013) and Face-Off (2014) 194
Introduction 194
Crime Fiction in Africa, in Particular, South(ern) Africa 196
The Skin Collector, The Skinner’s Revenge and Face-Off 197
Conclusion 204
References 205
Dis/ability: The Construction of Norms and Normality in Popular Culture 206
The Discursive Constructions of ‘Disability’ and ‘Impairment’ 206
The ‘Monster’, the ‘Freak’, and the Construction of Ableist Normality 208
Disability as a Metaphor 210
Stereotypical Representations of ‘Disability’ 211
Pity 212
Comedy 214
Evil and Criminal 214
Sexuality 215
“Supercrip” 217
Dis/ability in the Twenty-First Century 218
Conclusion 222
References 222
Primary Sources 222
Media 223
Secondary Texts 223
Popular Narratives of the Cochlear Implant 227
CI Controversies 228
“I’m Not Deaf”: Switched at Birth (2011) 232
YouTube Videos and the “Switch On” 235
Conclusion 238
References 239
Media 241
Between Utopia and Dystopia: Contemporary Art and Its Conflicting Representations of Scientific Knowledge 242
Introduction 242
From Computer Art to the AST 244
Two Worlds and Two Opposing Views 245
Technophile Discourses Abound 249
Justifying AST (and Transhumanism) 250
Conclusion 252
References 253
With Great Power Comes Changing Representations: From Radiation to Genetics in the Origin of Spider-Man 256
Comics, Continuity and the Ultimate Re-boot 256
Genetic Modification 260
Conclusion 265
References 266
Music in Serious Games as a  Healing Factor 268
Introduction 268
Serious Games in Healthcare 269
Music as a Supportive Element in Medical Serious Games 271
Re-mission 273
Snow World 273
Elude 274
SPARX 275
Conclusion 276
References 278
Media 279
Autonomy, Heteronomy, and Bioethics in BioShock 280
Introduction: Popular Culture and Technoscience 280
Analytical Approaches to BioShock 284
BioShock as a Dystopia 285
Interacting with the Game 287
Biomedical Discourses (1): Biomedical Research and the Free Market 289
Biomedical Discourses (2): Nontherapeutic Surgery 291
Conclusion 293
References 295
Media 297
The Scientific Enterprise Illustrated: Abduction, Discovery and Creativity 298
References 303
Media 303
Using Case Studies from Popular Culture to Teach Medical Physiology 304
Introduction 304
Darth Vader as a Case Study on Respiratory Physiology 305
Implementing Darth Vader in a Respiratory Physiology Class 308
Miles Dyson as a Case Study on Cardiovascular Physiology 310
Implementing Miles Dyson in a Cardiovascular Physiology Class 311
Student Evaluations 311
Concluding Remarks 314
References 315
Media 316
Part III: Social Implications 317
Consuming, Experiencing, and Governing: Setting the Scene for Public Encounters with Biomedicine 318
Introduction 318
Consuming Biomedical Knowledge 319
Experiencing Biomedical Practices 322
Governing Biomedicine 324
Conclusions 327
References 328
Bias by Medical Drama. Reflections of Stereotypic Images of Physicians in the Context of Contemporary Medical Dramas 331
Introduction 331
Fact and Fiction in Medical Drama 333
Methods 334
Participants and Questionnaire 334
Results 336
Discussion 338
Conclusion 339
References 340
Media 343
The Medical, Social, and Cultural Construction and Production of Post-­Traumatic Stress Disorder 344
Introduction: Definition and Prevalence of PTSD 344
The Sociocultural Texture of PTSD 345
A Medical History of PTSD 347
Popular Culture as a Promotor of PTSD’s Politization and Medicalization 352
Conclusions 358
References 360
Media 362
Socialist Advertising. Health Education in East German Television 363
Introduction 364
Health Films and Exhibitions: A Short Look Back at the Weimar Republic 366
Socialist Advertising, the 1950s and Early 1960s 367
“Du und Deine Gesundheit” 370
Die Haut 373
Final Remark 375
References 376
Archive Material 377
Federal Achives (Bundesarchiv), Berlin 377
Saxon State Achives (Hauptstaatsarchiv), Dresden 377
Hygiene Museum Archive (Archiv des Hygiene Museums), Dresden 377

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 10.9.2018
• Zusatzinfo: VII, 385 p. 2 illus.
• Verlagsort: Cham
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Ethik
• Themenwelt: Medizin / Pharmazie
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie
• Schlagworte: Biomedical Sciences • biomedicine and culture • biomedicine in popular culture • Cultural Studies • knowledge distribution • medical education • Medical Humanities • medical narratives • medical science and popular culture • Pop culture • popular culture and medicine • popular science in humanities • Public Understanding of Science • Semiotics • the cochlear implant
• ISBN-10: 3-319-90677-1 / 3319906771
• ISBN-13: 978-3-319-90677-5 / 9783319906775