Authority and medical expertise: Arthur Conan Doyle in The Idler

Area of Science:

• Medical Humanities
• Literature and Medicine
• History of Medicine

Background:

• Arthur Conan Doyle's medical and literary careers were interconnected.
• The professionalization of medicine created a distance between doctors and the public.
• Popular medical journalism and diverse scientific narratives were prevalent during his writing period.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore how Arthur Conan Doyle's writings addressed public understanding of medical expertise and authority.
• To analyze Doyle's contributions to "The Idler: An Illustrated Magazine" in the 1890s.
• To examine the relationship between competing narratives, expertise, and authority in Doyle's illustrated works.

Main Methods:

• Close reading of Doyle's rarely studied single-issue stories and articles from "The Idler."
• Analysis of the medical context of doctor-patient relationships.
• Examination of how Doyle and his illustrators depicted expertise and authority for a lay audience.

Main Results:

• Doyle's illustrated works engaged with questions of knowledge construction and expert authority.
• These works provided accessible narratives of medical science for the general population.
• The articles explored how the public could evaluate medical experts and navigate scientific information.

Conclusions:

• Arthur Conan Doyle's writings bridged the gap between medical professionals and the public.
• His work demonstrated strategies for recognizing expertise and navigating complex medical information.
• Doyle's illustrated contributions empowered readers to critically engage with medical science.