Tamzin Mackie
Doctoral Student in Literature - Tamzin’s thesis is entitled ‘Julia Darling's New Vocabularies of Pain: Mapping Body, Gender and Place'.
Research Project Title:
Julia Darling's New Vocabularies of Pain: Mapping Body, Gender and Place
Supervisors:
Professor Anne Whitehead, Dr Alex Niven and Professor Jane Macnaughton
Contact Details:
Email: T.mackie2@newcastle.ac.uk
Research Interests:
- Medical Humanities and phenomenology
- Issues surrounding gender, sexuality and class
- Representations of health narratives and the human body
- Intersections between medicine, illness and regional healthcare settings
- Autopathography and autothanatography
- The experience of illness, cultural geography and the civic body
- Contemporary literature and culture
- Feminist materialism
Brief Outline of Research Project:
My research is at the intersection of late 20th century literature and first-wave medical humanities. This project excavates how the writer Julia Darling forged an innovative literary vocabulary of health and sickness, addressing the body politics of illness alongside the traumatized civic body of post-industrial Tyneside. I interrogate how Darling confronted the inadequacy of conventional medical discourse in radical written work and also during pioneering collaborations with clinicians – for example, in the creation of the transformative Operating Theatre at Newcastle University. Drawing on Darling’s texts, both published and unpublished, offers fascinating insight into her subversive writing practice. The thesis sheds light on Darling's contribution to the emerging field of the medical humanities and the ways in which she helped redefine illness narratives and reimagine healthcare settings.