Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: John Donne

  • Donne’s “Sonnet X”: “Death Be Not Proud”

    Simon WeinPetach Tikvah, Israel What does it mean to be a self-conscious animal? The idea is ludicrous, if it is not monstrous. It means to know that one is food for worms. This is the terror: to have emerged from nothing, to have a name, consciousness of self, deep inner feelings, an excruciating inner yearning…

  • Book review: Island Dreams: Mapping an Obsession

    Arpan K. BanerjeeSolihull, United Kingdom Gavin Francis is a Scottish doctor, author, and traveler who has worked in emergency medicine, family medicine, and as the resident doctor for the Antarctic survey, which resulted in a previous book. His wanderlust and way with words have been favorably compared to the late Bruce Chatwin. Island Dreams: Mapping…

  • Sir Geoffrey Langdon Keynes

    JMS PearceEast Yorks, UK Mention the name Keynes in Britain and most people think of the Buckinghamshire town Milton Keynes or the celebrated twentieth-century economist John Maynard Keynes. In the thirteenth century Milton Keynes village was Mideltone Kaynes, named after its feudal masters, the de Cahainges originally from Normandy,1 who held many manors after the…

  • Margaret Edson’s W;t: Lessons on person-centered care

    Atara MessingerToronto, Ontario, Canada American playwright Margaret Edson’s 1998 play W;t has been described as “ninety minutes of suffering and death mitigated by a pelvic exam and a lecture on seventeenth-century poetry.”1 When W;t was first published, most theater companies rejected it on the grounds that its subject matter would be too difficult for audiences…

  • Ending one’s life on the stage

    Angela BelliNew York City, New York, United States Writers and physicians often share the same sensibilities and skills required to describe the disease process and its wider effects. But while the literary artist, unlike the physician, relies on his imagination to realize the experience of his fictional characters, he can also engage the imagination and…