Illness and Femininity in Hilary Mantel’s Giving Up the Ghost
September 2017
in “
Textual Practice
”
TLDR The document concludes that Hilary Mantel's memoir shows how childhood experiences affect adult health, criticizing modern medicine for ignoring the mental aspects of physical illness.
The document analyzes Hilary Mantel's memoir "Giving Up the Ghost" and its portrayal of the complex relationship between illness, femininity, and psychological history. It suggests that Mantel's undiagnosed pain and experiences with illness are deeply connected to her internal psychological landscape, which includes the presence of ghosts from her childhood. The author critiques modern medicine for often overlooking the role of mental processes in physical health and argues that personal narratives like Mantel's highlight the importance of psychological interiority in understanding illness. The memoir is presented as a valuable contribution to the field, emphasizing how childhood psychological experiences can impact adult health, a concept supported by research in various scientific fields such as epigenetics and epidemiology.
