Writing Illness and Identity in Seventeenth-Century Britain

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Focusing on early modern manuscript life-writing, the book examines how individuals in the seventeenth century rationalized and documented their illnesses. It reveals that medical explanations were often overshadowed by social and religious contexts, leading to a prescriptive rather than original portrayal of illness. The author highlights how these personal narratives shaped the self-conception of their writers, illustrating the interplay between illness and identity in early modern society.