Cultural Sutures

“Cultural Sutures presents provocative ideas and issues, making it a valuable addition to the field of the medical humanities.” - Roberta Jill Craven , Quarterly Review of Film and Video

“In a cultural and historical moment in which there is increasing profit—both literal and symbolic—in the intersections between medicine and media, this volume creates a productive conversation between scholars in a wide range of fields concerned with popular communication, technology, and health care.” - Meredith Raimondo , Medical Humanities Review

“This edited collection cogently explicates how the media and modern medicine deeply inform each other, a dynamic that rightly deserves more scholarly attention. As Lester D. Friedman asserts in his introduction to Cultural Sutures, it is important for scholars in the medical humanities to examine how media both shapes and reflects cultural ideas of medicine. Taken together, these essays illuminate a range of historical, ethical, and methodological questions. The book will be an important resource for both academics and students.” - Leigh H. Edwards, Journal of Medical Humanities

"Cultural Sutures should be read in one of two ways: either as an exculpatory introduction to a significant and fascinating cultural singularity, or as an opening into an exciting new field of cultural analysis. At its very best, I would say that it is both." - Jason Morgan, Topia

"[E]ngaging. . . . [A] thought-provoking text. The balance of the material is insightful and entertaining, and there are lots of images to augment the analysis." - Martin A. French , Canadian Journal of Communication

"[The] organization of sections makes this collection easily accessible to readers interested in approaching the examination of medicine and media from a text-based perspective. . . . [E]xcellent. . . . [E]ngaging." - Cynthia Ryan , JAMA

"Editor Friedman provides an insightful introduction, and the well-chosen authors represent diverse disciplines. . . . This book, which is probably the most comprehensive analysis ever published of how media impacts medicine and culture, fills a niche. Highly recommended." - R.A. Logan , Choice

"One of the key strengths of Cultural Sutures is its uniformly analytical approach. This lends an authority to its claims. . . . [I]nnovative. . . . [F]ascinating. . . . This book would be useful to undergraduate media, photography and film students looking at representational practices. " - Scope

“This is a book so timely and valuable—even necessary—that the wonder is that it hasn’t already appeared.” - David B. Morris, author of Illness and Culture in the Postmodern Age and The Culture of Pain