About

PhD Candidate in English and Comparative Literary Studies

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Email: Heather.Wardlaw@warwick.ac.uk

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Supervisors: Dr Emma Francis and Prof Liz Barry

Doctoral Thesis

Care in the Home: Family Nursing and the Medical Profession in the Mid-Nineteenth Century (c. 1830-1860)

My research focuses on depictions of home care provided during the mid-nineteenth century (c. 1830-1860), as healthcare transitioned from a domestic concern to an established set of professions. This project addresses the impact of family-nursing on patient care, how being the family nurse impacted the caregiver, what role family-nurses had in developing modern medical practices and, conversely, the way professionalization of medicine impacted family life. This project brings together literary studies, history of medicine, and critical theories of care to understand, contextualize, and critique illness narratives in the nineteenth century and care tactics of today. Case studies include representations of caregivers and medicine in works from Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Brontë, Elizabeth Gaskell, and Charlotte Yonge. This project also makes use of non-fiction illness narratives, such as Martineau’s “Life in the Sick-room” (1844), and medical manuals, such as Todd Thomson’s “The Domestic Management of the Sick-Room” (1841) and Nightingale’s “Notes on Nursing” (1859), to better trace the changing views of society regarding who should manage medical care.

Research Interests

Nineteenth century literature, women's writing, feminist literature, medical humanities, ethics of care theory.

Education

MA, English Literary Studies, Durham University

BA, English Literature and Secondary Education, Western Washington University