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BITE THE BELT: THE SURGEON IN CIVIL WAR LITERATURE By SARAH K. TRAPHAGEN A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2014 © 2014 Sarah K. Traphagen ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I have had many great teachers who taught me to pursue what means most to me. Sally Osborne, I cannot find the words to truly thank you for your guidance and profound love. The roots of this project began with John Michalko. Should he read this, he will smile at the thought of a young girl dressed up as a Civil War soldier with a mustache drawn on her face. John, thank you for showing me that to teach is to touch a life forever. Picnic with Scott Schauman changed my life forever and made me realize who I am. Thanks, Scott. Many thanks to Paula Kot, Bill Martin, Jamie Carr, and Tom Chambers at Niagara University for guiding me into a very bright future. The groundwork for this dissertation began at the University at Buffalo. Thank you, Carrie Tirado Bramen, for your encouragement with my Civil War literature research. Over the past ten years, I have met so many wonderful people who became my close friends and steadfast supporters. My dear friends, thank you for your wisdom, encouragement, and kindness. Thank you so much especially to Ashwak Fardoush, Michelle Denham, Anthony Cirilla, Zach Mills, Beth Whistler, Danielle Puleo, Taylor Brodie and Kelton Fredrick, Jordan Youngblood, Sarah Lennox, Elliot Kuecker, Dave and Ginny Lawrimore, Rebekah Fitzsimmons, Amisha Sharma, Rachel Butikofer, and the Miles family. Many thanks to Diane Garrison, Nellie Eshleman, Stacey Walden, Glenn Cameron, Erin Dorman, Dr. Lori Scott, Kelsey Chesteen, Kate Ellison, Ana Mango, and Abby Reichardt for “midwifing” me through the last stage of my schooling. To my students over the years, thank you for your validation and creativity. Alix Krzemien, Kristi Mitchell, Najwa Al-Tabaa, and Sarah Pitcher Hayes, thank you for your abundant love and strength. I am so lucky to know each of you. I hope I can pay back to you everything that you have done–and still do–for me as I make my 3 way through life. Gage LaFleur, my heart carries you in it. Thank you for your talks, for growing with me, and for giving my thoughts and everything I have worked so hard for an incredible name. To my director, Stephanie A. Smith, and doctoral committee, Jodi Schorb, Ed White, and Matt Gallman, I am forever indebted to all of you. This project exists because of you. Each of you has given me gifts beyond anything I could ever ask for. Each of you helped me grow as a scholar, writer, thinker, and human being over the past four years. I will pay forward to my students every bit of care, guidance, and honesty that you so graciously bestowed upon me. With all of my heart, thank you. I owe a great deal to Sean Kelly who has taught me to live life a little more outside of my books. Sean, you have the ability to take my complex thoughts and make them simple. Thank you for making me meals, giving me your calm, and for taking a plane ride when you did. I am so grateful to have you in my life. Infinite thanks to Lynette and Obby Tavano and family, JoAnne and Donald Yott and family, Rich Yahn and family, Joe and Laurie Traphagen and family, and Mary Ellen Hill. I would not be where I am without your support and love. Grandma and Grandpa, thank you for moving me to Florida, and for feeding me and doing my laundry when I came to visit. You were my home away from home. Aunt Net, thank you for being my best friend, telling it to me straight when I need it, and for all the laughs. To my mother and father, Christina and Ed Traphagen, I am so blessed that you have always supported my choices without judgment. Every day of my life you encourage me to dance to my own beat. You always tell me to reach for the stars and never give up even 4 when I feel like I cannot go any further. I am so fortunate for that kind of love. Dad, thank you for introducing me to Hawkeye and Trapper. This project surely stems from the many, many episodes of M*A*S*H we have watched together. Mom and Dad, thank you for the work ethic and compassion that you have instilled me. My accomplishments are your accomplishments. 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................. 3 LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................... 8 ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................... 9 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION: LIFE AND LIMB ......................................................................... 11 2 HALF-FACES DESPERATE: AMBROSE BIERCE’S WAR PHILOSOPHY AND THE MEDICAL MISPERCEPTION OF WOUNDED BODIES ................................. 23 A Manual and an Opportunity ................................................................................. 29 Father and Son ....................................................................................................... 34 Little Boys and Jawless Men ................................................................................... 37 Notes ...................................................................................................................... 58 3 WITH HINGED KNEES AND STEADY HAND: WALT WHITMAN AS SURGEON-SCRIBE ............................................................................................... 62 In Medias Chirurgia ................................................................................................. 64 The Inverted Triangle .............................................................................................. 72 Walt Whitman as Surgeon-Scribe ........................................................................... 77 Notes ...................................................................................................................... 93 4 BLOODSTAINED PETTICOATS, PROTESTING PANTALOONS, AND IMAGINING SURGEON EDUCATION FOR THE CIVIL WAR NURSE: RETHINKING LOUISA MAY ALCOTT’S TRIBULATION PERIWINKLE ................. 99 Medical Education and the Civil War Nurse .......................................................... 108 Bloody Petticoats, the Re-vision of the Woman in the Black Dress, and Protesting Pantaloons ....................................................................................... 120 Tribulation Periwinkle (Future M.D.) ..................................................................... 127 Notes .................................................................................................................... 136 5 CONSERVATIVE RESECTION: RECONSTRUCTION AND MARK TWAIN’S MEDICAL COMPLAINT ........................................................................................ 142 Pre-Op Persistence .............................................................................................. 145 The Clinic’s Medical Students ............................................................................... 155 Re-Section Complaint ........................................................................................... 161 Notes .................................................................................................................... 179 6 6 CONCLUSION: UNSEVERED: THE REIMAGINED CIVIL WAR SURGEON’S LESSONS IN E.L. DOCTOROW’S THE MARCH ................................................. 184 The Reimagined Civil War Doctor’s Perception .................................................... 190 Lesson One: Open Wound ................................................................................... 196 Lesson Two: Always Now for All of Us .................................................................. 200 Notes .................................................................................................................... 209 7 AFTERWORD: RE-HINGING LIFE/SCALPEL TO TEXT: NARRATIVE MENDING IN DR. DAVE HNIDA’S PARADISE GENERAL .................................. 211 Medical Autopilot .................................................................................................. 214 Every Slice, Every Stitch ....................................................................................... 218 The Final War Body .............................................................................................. 225 APPENDIX: THE GROSS CLINIC BY THOMAS EAKINS .......................................... 227 WORKS CITED ........................................................................................................... 228 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH .......................................................................................... 239 7 LIST OF FIGURES Figure page A-1. The Gross Clinic (1875) by Thomas Eakins ....................................................... 227 8 Abstract of Dissertation Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy BITE THE BELT: THE SURGEON IN CIVIL WAR LITERATURE By Sarah K. Traphagen August 2014 Chair: Stephanie A. Smith Major: English Bite the Belt: The Surgeon in Civil War Literature demonstrates how the literature of the Civil War is a literature of surgeons which contemplates, through the surgeon figure and other medical mediums, how literary artists narrated the war to make sense of it and participated in revising national discourse. Recent