In this multidisciplinary study, Ann Folwell Stanford reads
literature written by U.S. women of color to propose a rethinking
of modern medical practice, arguing that personal health and social
justice are inextricably linked. Drawing on feminist ethics to
explore the work of eleven novelists, Stanford challenges medicine
to position itself more deeply within the communities it serves,
especially the poor and marginalized. However, she also argues that
medicine must recognize its limits and join forces with the
nonmedical community in the struggle for social justice.
In literary representations of physical and emotional states of
illness and health, Stanford identifies issues related to public
health, medical ethics, institutionalized racism, women's health,
domestic abuse, and social justice that are important to
discussions about how to improve health and health care. She argues
that in either direct or indirect ways, the eleven novelists
considered here push us to see health not only as an individual
condition but also as a complex network of individual,
institutional, and social changes in which wellness can be a
possibility for the majority rather than a privileged few.
The novelists whose works are discussed are Toni Cade Bambara,
Paule Marshall, Gloria Naylor, Leslie Marmon Silko, Toni Morrison,
Louise Erdrich, Sandra Cisneros, Bebe Moore Campbell, Sapphire, Ana
Castillo, and Octavia Butler.