Zola's fortunate man: Rereading 'Le Docteur Pascal' as a country doctor

• Published in: Essays in French literature and culture Vol. 58; no. 58; pp. 51 - 68
• Main Author: Jones, Sarah
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Crawley, W.A University of Western Australia 01.10.2021; University of Western Australia, School of Humanities; The University of Western Australia
• Subjects: 19th century; Ambiguity; Analysis; Berger, John (1926-2017); Bildungsroman; British & Irish literature; Care; Communities; Context; country doctor; English literature; Exegesis & hermeneutics; French literature; Hegemony; Heroism & heroes; Humanities; Inequality; Irish literature; john berger; Literary characters; Literary criticism; Literary devices; Literary studies; Literature; medical humanities; Medical research; Medicine; Medicine, Rural; Morality; octor-patient relationship; Pascal, Blaise (1623-1662); Patients; Physician and patient; Physicians; Practice; Practitioner patient relationship; Research methodology; Rural areas; Social aspects; zola; Zola, Emile (1840-1902)
• ISSN: 1835-7040

This article rereads Emile Zola's Le Docteur Pascal (1893) from a critical Medical Humanities perspective to highlight the eponymous doctor's entanglement with medical practice, thus offering an innovative interpretation of one of Zola's most maligned novels. Drawing on John Berger's trope of the country doctor, described in A Fortunate Man: The Story of a Country Doctor (1967), this article foregrounds, firstly, Pascal's confrontation with his professional inadequacy; and, secondly, the inequality inherent in the doctorpatient relationship. At the same time as demonstrating the value of applying conceptual approaches derived from the critical Medical Humanities to literary studies, my analysis of the doctor-patient relationship in a rural context is of critical interest to the current development of the Medical Humanities.