To Be or Not to Be Postmodern: Regarding Contemporary Biomedical Science with Lyotard
To Be or Not to Be Postmodern: Regarding Contemporary Biomedical Science with Lyotard
Author(s): Estella CiobanuSubject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Lexis, Scientific Life, Philology
Published by: Ovidius University Press
Keywords: metanarrative (Jean-François Lyotard); Visible Human Project (VHP); Visible Korean Human (VKH); Chinese Visible Human (CVH); Anatomage Table;
Summary/Abstract: This paper investigates the condition of contemporary biomedical science– as suggested by the underlying discourse of its visual output – in relation to Jean François Lyotard’s proposition, in 1979, about the West’s postmodern distrust of metanarratives. I examine the Visible Human Project (a digital anatomical archive pioneered by the US National Library of Medicine), alongside its South Korean and Chinese counterparts, and the Anatomage Table (a US virtual dissection table incorporating US and Korean VH data), which draw on cutting-edge medical imagistic technology and aim to generate and improve biomedical knowledge and/or specific medical skills.
Journal: Analele Universităţii Ovidius din Constanţa. Seria Filologie
- Issue Year: XXXII/2021
- Issue No: 2
- Page Range: 128-148
- Page Count: 21
- Language: English