Professor Alice Kuzniar received a SSHRC Insight Grant for her research about the influence of the writings and practice of the renowned homeopath Clemens von Bönninghausen on the poetry of Germany's foremost female writer, Annette von Droste-Hülshoff. For this, she asks the question: How can one meaningfully bring together the very different fields of medicine and literature? Professor Kuzniar says that this grant allows her to pursue this line of research and form a team of medical historians and literary scholars.
Read the summary of her proposal below:
Bönninghausen
was
the
main
disciple
of
the
founder
of
homeopathy,
Samuel
Hahnemann,
whose
work
he
systematized
and
popularized.
Droste
consulted
with
him
for
almost
two
decades.
Her
poetry
was
famous
for
exquisite
attention
to
mood
changes,
meticulous
observations
of
nature,
heightened
sense
of
ephemerality,
and
depictions
of
self-estrangement.
All
these
characteristics
of
modernity,
Prof.
Kuzniar
argues,
stem
from
homeopathy's
distinctive
demands
about
how
to
observe,
record,
communicate,
and
catalogue
symptoms
of
illness
in
detail.
Given
the
stature
of
both
Droste
and
Bönninghausen,
it
is
remarkable
that
the
disciplines--literature
and
the
history
of
medicine--have
not
examined
his
influence
on
her
writing,
although
the
legacy
of
both
19th-century
writers
extends
into
the
present.
Why
is
the
constellation
of
homeopathy
and
literature
important
to
us
today?
This
project
continues
to
contribute
to
ongoing
public
debates
about
homeopathy
by
developing
the
argument
first
presented
in
THE
BIRTH
OF
HOMEOPATHY
OUT
OF
THE
SPIRIT
OF
ROMANTICISM
that
homeopathy
must
be
recognized
as
a
child
of
its
time--of
intellectual
and
medical
debates
around
1800--alas,
a
history
invisible
and
ignored.
Rarely
recognized
are
how
homeopathy's
materia
medica
and
patient
notes
are
uniquely
dictated
by
an
unusual
heterogeneous
listing
of
symptoms,
an
inventory
that
encourages
its
patients
to
utmost
sensate
attentiveness.
It
was
a
strategy
of
perceiving
and
notating
that
created
the
strikingly
modern
poetry
of
Annette
von
Droste-Hülshoff.
Congratulations,
Alice!
We
hope
your
research
goes
as
planned
and
are
looking
forward
to
the
results.