Date Thesis Awarded
12-2017
Access Type
Honors Thesis -- Access Restricted On-Campus Only
Degree Name
Bachelors of Arts (BA)
Department
English
Advisor
Christopher MacGowan
Committee Members
Robert Scholnick
Henry Hart
Beverly Sher
Abstract
In his careers as both an influential writer and practicing physician, William Carlos Williams united two worlds and transcended the boundary between science and imagination. This paper examines Williams’s medical narratives and analyzes their exploration of the doctor-patient exchange—specifically focusing its inherent complexities of communication brought about by conflicts between professionalism, empathy, authority, observation, science, emotion, and their underlying tensions. Through studying Williams's writings, this paper aims to achieve a deeper understanding of how he portrays physicians and their clients navigating a complex relationship, and how Williams's dual careers came together to impact his own medical experiences and his parallel literary endeavors.
Recommended Citation
Heins, Sarah, "Patients, Prose, and Poetry: The Medical and Literary World of William Carlos Williams" (2017). Undergraduate Honors Theses. William & Mary. Paper 1138.
https://scholarworks.wm.edu/honorstheses/1138
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License.
