The Dittrick Museum of Medical History will host a book launch event for Associate Professor of English T. Kenny Fountain’s new book, Rhetoric in the Flesh, a study of cadaver labs and medical ways of seeing.
The event will take place on Thursday, Jan. 29, in the Allen Memorial Medical Library. At 5:30 p.m., there will be light refreshments, a book signing and a companion exhibit in the Cushing Room, and at 6 p.m., Fountain will give a talk in the Zverina Room.
Rhetoric in the Flesh: Trained Vision, Technical Expertise, and the Gross Anatomy Lab (Routledge, 2014) is an ethnographic study of the cadaveric anatomy lab. It investigates the role that language, visual displays, and embodied practices play in the training and socialization of medical students.
In the book, Fountain demonstrates how anatomy students’ perceptions of the body and medical training are shaped by their repeated interactions with cadavers, representations of cadavers, and the discourses that help participants make sense of and make peace with the invasive procedures of the gross lab. In his talk, Fountain will explore these ideas by turning to examples from his book as well as historical texts from the Dittrick Museum’s collection.
RSVP by contacting Jennifer Nieves at jks4@case.edu or 216.368.3648.