CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2014
| Author | Nádasi , Eszter |
|---|---|
| Title | REPRESENTATIONS OF BIOMEDICINE, MEDICAL RESEARCH AND BIOETHICS IN MEDICAL DRAMAS |
| Summary | This thesis explains certain approaches that circulate in the scholarly and popular cultural discourses about the transformation of the human body. By focusing on those theories which claim that the transition and the new form of embodiment come into existence by the application and innovation of modern medical technologies, I describe the debates and controversies around the new stage called posthumanity. The review part introduces several theories of posthuman embodiment, like the hybridity and robotization of the human body, boundary crossings between human, animal, and machines and presents that the process of posthumanization entails ambiguities, excitement, and anxieties within the scholarly fields, for instance because transplantation, prosthetization, assistive reproduction and genetic research change general ideas about human embodiment. These technologies raise bioethical concerns and have individual and social impacts, thus I argue that people have to be informed about the advances of medical technologies. Beyond the traditional ways of scientific communication it is necessary to examine how the issues described above are presented in the field of popular culture. This thesis examines a genre called medical drama series and argues that these series have the potential to represent posthumanist issues and challenges. Medical dramas are useful sources in the debates about posthumanism and invite the audience to think about the presented issues, and provide platforms for further discussions. The thesis builds on the content analysis of two popular American television series called Grey’s Anatomy and E.R. The critical review of the content is supported by the episodes, as well as official and non-official recaps. By examining the medical dramas’ media coverage I found important information about the agendas and motivations of the creators. By using media sources I elaborated on the audience’s perception of the series’ medical content, infotainment potential, and real life effects. The review of Posthumanist thinkers, Scholars of Media, Culture, Gender and Science and Technology Studies establish the field for the content analysis and describe why it is important to elaborate on the ways how medical dramas represent the possibility of posthumanism, and it is the basis of the comparison between scholarly and popular cultural debates on posthumanism. The way how posthumanist discussions are enacted in medical dramas is important in order to understand some specific issues about the transformation of the body and the feelings toward it. The public relies on popular culture’s fictional genre in order to get information and to guide its perception and evaluation of certain medical practices. Medical dramas are more than infotainment sources in the question of posthumanity: as the result of my examination shows, these series not only explain medical issues that challenge human embodiment but also mediate these through the dramatic content. This activity builds on the audience’s engagement with the characters, the presented life stories, and professional dilemmas. While the informatory role is important, I argue that the series contain the risk of misleading the audience, therefore, more perception studies and discussions about the genre’s potentials and limits are needed. |
| Supervisor | Cerwonka, Allaine |
| Department | Gender Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2014/nadasi_eszter.pdf |
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