Translationality

Book excerpt: This book defines "translationality" by weaving a number of sub- and interdisciplinary interests through the medical humanities: medicine in literature, the translational history of medical literature, a medical (neuroscience) approach to literary translation and translational hermeneutics, and a humanities (phenomenological/performative) approach to translational medicine. It consists of three long essays: the first on the traditional medicine-in-literature side of the medical humanities, with a close look at a recent novel built around the Capgras delusion and other neurological misidentification disorders; the second beginning with the traditional history-of-medicine side of the medical humanities, but segueing into literary history, translation history, and translation theory; the third on the social neuroscience of translational hermeneutics. The conclusion links the discussion up with a humanistic (performative/phenomenological) take on translational medicine.