A Psychoneuroimmunological Reading of Jane Austen's Persuasion in the Context of Bodily Aging.

Persuasion Aging Body English literature Jane Austen Psychoneuroimmunology

Journal

The Journal of medical humanities

ISSN: 1573-3645

Titre abrégé: J Med Humanit

Pays: United States

ID NLM: 8917478

Informations de publication

Date de publication:
05 Apr 2024

Historique:

accepted: 22 01 2024

medline: 5 4 2024

pubmed: 5 4 2024

entrez: 4 4 2024

Statut: aheadofprint

Résumé

Jane Austen normally avoids discussing appearance throughout her works. Persuasion constitutes the exception to the rule, as the story focuses on the premature aging experienced by her protagonist, Anne Elliot, seemingly due to disappointed love. Much has been written about Anne's "loss of bloom," but never from the perspective of psychoneuroimmunology, the field that researches the interrelation between psychological processes and the nervous and immune systems. In this paper, we adopt a perspective of psychoneuroimmunology to argue that Austen established a connection between psychological distress, specifically lovesickness, and the development of early senescence signs, and vice versa, since the recovery of love is associated with happiness and physical glow. From a gender perspective, we discuss how Austen brightly reflected these interrelationships through the story of Anne, when the latest psychoneuroimmunological research has actually shown that women age earlier than men as a consequence of psychological turmoil.

Identifiants

DOI: 10.1007/s10912-024-09845-1 PMID: 38575758

pubmed: 38575758

doi: 10.1007/s10912-024-09845-1

pii: 10.1007/s10912-024-09845-1

doi:

Types de publication

Journal Article

Langues

eng

Sous-ensembles de citation

Informations de copyright

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