German Health Narratives between Life Reform and Medical Enlightenment, 1890–1930

Abstract

This article traces the emergence of the health narrative as a new genre of bodily knowledge in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Germany. Health narratives were life stories told by or about an individual, either real or fictional, who made conscious choices about how to conduct their bodily existence. Pioneered by lay health seekers known as life reformers, health narratives were co-opted by physicians hoping to reinvent medical enlightenment for the twentieth century. In addition to surveying the variety of forms that health narratives took in adult and children’s literature, the article explores the paradoxes and contradictions that ensued around voice, agency, embodiment, and selfhood as these narratives spread from life reform to medical contexts.