“Modern Medicine Had to Start Somewhere:” Performing Health and White Privilege in The Knick

This essay examines the interrelations of health and white privilege in the U.S.-American historical and medical drama The Knick “(2014-). Employing a broad definition of health and drawing from performance studies, this article argues that the everyday life within the series depicts a racist so...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Claudia Trotzke
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Regensburg: Current objectives in postgraduate American studies c/o Universität Regensburg/Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik 2016-05-01
Series:Current Objectives of Postgraduate American Studies
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Online Access:https://copas.uni-regensburg.de/index.php/copas/article/view/251
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Summary:This essay examines the interrelations of health and white privilege in the U.S.-American historical and medical drama The Knick “(2014-). Employing a broad definition of health and drawing from performance studies, this article argues that the everyday life within the series depicts a racist society, while the television series itself with its rhetoric of modernity and visual strategies makes white privilege visible in the context of health. The television series and everyday life within the show are examined in regard to their performative dimensions, i.e. both levels of performance do not merely represent, but take an active part in defining health and its surrounding discourses.  
ISSN:1861-6127