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Beyond Nightingale: The Transformation of Nursing in Victorian and World War I Literature

Benham, M. Renee
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6484-4582
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1490186723107747

Abstract Details

2017, Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, English (Arts and Sciences).
Only relatively recently has paid nursing come to be viewed as a respectable profession for women. Early-nineteenth-century literature describes hired nurses as low-class, slovenly women who smoked, drank, and abused their patients. Middle-class British society feared that hired nurses were low-class, ignorant, unsympathetic, unfeminine, and too independent from men. Beyond Nightingale examines how literature from the early nineteenth century through the early twentieth century helped alleviate these fears and altered the public perception of nursing by presenting paid nurses as middle-class women who were sympathetic, selfless, and subservient to doctors. Many authors suggested that nursing ability was not dependent upon natural femininity or personal character, but relied on training and experience. By altering the public’s perception of paid nursing, literary portrayals of nursing facilitated its transformation from an extension of the feminine, domestic sphere into an efficient medical profession for women. Beyond Nightingale examines works by Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, William Thackeray, and L. T. Meade, among others, to challenge the prevailing myth that Florence Nightingale single-handedly reformed nursing in the mid-1850s. Using World War I propaganda, periodicals, novels, and memoirs, Benham also explores how the desire for efficiency was encouraged and contested in literary portrayals of nursing from 1900 – 1918. Great War nursing literature emphasized efficiency as the most important objective in nursing care. As a result, sympathy was increasingly devalued because it hindered the efficiency of the medical machine. This tension between sympathetic and efficient care has not been resolved, but continues to plague the medical profession today. Beyond Nightingale considers not only traditional literary works, but also a variety of non-literary archival sources including nursing manuals, sanitary pamphlets, women’s periodicals, and Voluntary Aid Detachment (V.A.D.) documents. Benham demonstrates how both literary and non-literary texts informed one another and contributed to a common conversation about the transformation of nursing care. With this wealth of sources, Benham traces the evolution of the literary representation of nursing from a denigrated and despised last resort for poor widows to an esteemed, efficient profession for middle-class British women.
Joseph McLaughlin (Advisor)
Carey Snyder (Committee Member)
Nicole Reynolds (Committee Member)
Albert Rouzie (Committee Member)
Jacqueline Wolf (Other)
334 p.
British and Irish Literature; Gender Studies; History; Literature; Medicine; Nursing; Public Health; Sanitation; Womens Studies
Nursing; Victorian; Victorian literature; Nineteenth Century; Nineteenth-Century Literature; Nursing History; Victorian Nursing; History of Medicine; sanitary reform; Ladies Sanitary Association; World War I; Great War; memoir

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Benham, M. R. (2017). Beyond Nightingale: The Transformation of Nursing in Victorian and World War I Literature [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1490186723107747

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Benham, M. Renee. Beyond Nightingale: The Transformation of Nursing in Victorian and World War I Literature. 2017. Ohio University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1490186723107747.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Benham, M. Renee. "Beyond Nightingale: The Transformation of Nursing in Victorian and World War I Literature." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio University, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1490186723107747

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ohiou1490186723107747
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© 2017, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Ohio University and OhioLINK.