"True clinical fictions": medical and literary narratives from the Civil War Hospital

Abstract

Where to find stories of the "real" Civil War? Since Walt Whitman, observers have suggested the place to look is the military hospital. This paper offers a comparative analysis of medical case histories and literary stories written by S. Weir Mitchell, head contract-surgeon at one of the largest Union army research hospitals. I illustrate that Mitchell's case histories and stories were at once complementary and antagonistic in their use of medical knowledge and narrative technique as a means of achieving truth-value.