Neo-Victorian After-Affects: Female Genital Mutilation in Emma Donoghue's ‘Cured’ – The Scandalous Case of Isaac Baker Brown

Abstract

Emma Donoghue's neo-Victorian short story ‘ Cured’ (2002) re-assesses the British gynaecological practice of clitoridectomy conducted in the mid-nineteenth century by the pre-eminent surgeon Isaac Baker Brown. Donoghue revisits the scandal surrounding Baker Brown's medical experimentation from a feminist perspective, offering a reimagining of the case of patient ‘P. F.’ documented in Brown's published medical notes. This article argues that Donoghue utilises the discourses of trauma and affect to re-create and re-evaluate this gendered and scientific case history and to articulate a harrowing feminist narrative elided by Baker Brown's public testimony. By re-expressing Miss F.'s painful plight, Donoghue not only invites the reader to bear after-witness to Baker Brown's barbarous practices but also vehemently critiques this aspect of female history, exposing how unethical and unnecessary his medical intervention was upon women in nineteenth-century England.