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Politics, Ideology, and the Discourse of Disease

Concepts and notions formed in the fields of medicine have always been used in politics and ethics as metaphors to define good societal models, to manipulate public opinion, to consolidate prejudices, and to gain power. The connection between political power, rhetoric and medicine is therefore ancient and profound. The concept of disease has been often used to attack domestic and foreign enemies, to criticise society as a sick “body”, to legitimise political action (often repressive and violent) as a necessary “surgical” measure to remove the cause of the social illness. War has even been called the “hygiene” to clean the world, while otherness has been labelled in derogatory and judgmental ways aimed at legitimising their subjugation, correction, or even elimination. On the other hand, a broad debate on public health is key to the construction of good societies as far as health is recognised as a universal right. Although prevention, public education, and the ethical conception of medical treatment as a complex physic-psycho-cultural issue are acknowledged as pillars of a modern idea of health, these approaches are often far from being practiced. The relationship between politics, ideology, and disease becomes then blurred, and there is an urgent need for a more profound insight into this relation.

interface –Journal of European Languages and Literatures  is inviting original unpublished papers written in English, French, German, Spanish, Russian, or Italian for interface Issue 19, to be published in November 2022.

We particularly welcome contributions from established researchers, postdoctoral and early-career scholars, and postgraduate students in a wide range of disciplines including (among others) Medicine, Politics, History of Medicine, History of Science, History of Ideas, Ethics, Literary Studies, Sociology, Linguistics, Philosophy of Language, Classics, Cultural Studies, and Cultural History.

Topics may include (but are not limited to)

• Ethics and the political management of health;
• The rhetoric of disease in ideological discourse;
• The politics of health and ideological use of disease;
• Law, politics, and pandemics;
• Health, well-being, and human rights (e.g. euthanasia, prevention, public healthcare vs. private healthcare, etc.);
• Disease, diversity, and social exclusion (e.g. homosexuality, mental conditions, asylums and other institutions of segregation, etc.);
• Health, disease, otherness, and the ethno-anthropological discourse (colonialism, immigration, xenophobia, etc.);
• Politics, Western medicine, and their relation to traditional medicine;
• Discourse on medicine as political metaphor.

interface also invites papers not related to the Special Topic which will be published in a dedicated General Topic Section.

(http://interface.org.tw/index.php/if/about/submissions#authorGuidelines