hrileena ghosh

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Hrileena Ghosh received her PhD from the University of St Andrews in January 2016, with a thesis entitled 'John Keats's Medical Notebook and the Poet's Career: An Editorial, Critical and Biographical Reassessment'. Her principal research interests lie in the fields of Romanticism; and in the relationship between literary and scientific thought through the long eighteenth century.
Supervisors: Professor Nicholas Roe

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Andrej Dujella

University of Zagreb

Hemin Koyi

Uppsala University

Jana Javornik

University of East London

Graham Martin

University of Leicester

Gwen Robbins Schug

University of North Carolina at Greensboro

Gabriel Gutierrez-Alonso

University of Salamanca

John Sutton

Macquarie University

Eros Carvalho

Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul

Kevin Arbuckle

Swansea University

Jesper Hoffmeyer

University of Copenhagen

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Papers by hrileena ghosh

Endymion and the Physiology of Passion

Liverpool University Press eBooks, Feb 29, 2020

This chapter focuses on Endymion, the only long poem Keats ever completed, which was written imme... more This chapter focuses on Endymion, the only long poem Keats ever completed, which was written immediately after he left Guy’s Hospital when his medical experience was fresh in his mind. Reading Endymion through the contents of Keats’ medical Notebook allows a fresh perspective on the physiology that underlies and informs the poem’s depictions of passion. Close reading of the poem, and of the biographical circumstances in which it was composed, reveal the extent to which Keats’ medical experience affected his poetic creativity, and the way contemporary criticismrecognised and responded to this aspect of the poem. The chapter concludes with an exploration of Keats’ knowledge of Romantic medical ethics, and how this informed his delineation of the figures of healers. Endymion showcases Keats’ ability to convey extreme emotion through anatomical descriptions and medical vocabulary.

‘Give Me Women Wine and Snuff’: A New Account of John Keats’s Poem

Keats-shelley Review, Jul 2, 2016

Abstract John Keats’s short poem ‘Give me women wine and snuff’ dates from his years as a student... more Abstract John Keats’s short poem ‘Give me women wine and snuff’ dates from his years as a student at Guy’s Hospital. Written on the cover of a fellow student’s notebook, its six lines have routinely been dismissed by editors as ‘Nonsense’, ‘Jocular’ and ‘Trivial’. This article gives an account of the poem in various editions of Keats, and offers the first accurate transcription of its original manuscript version. A close reading of it in the context of Keats’s life and studies at Guy’s reveals its witty and clear-sighted commentary on student life and on some of the gruesome rituals of the dissection room and what they reveal.

Linked Pauses: Keatsian Mythology and the Poetics of Dissolution

Keats-shelley Review, Apr 1, 2012

This essay seeks to explore the mobility of Keats's poetic discourse-the way his poetry seems to ... more This essay seeks to explore the mobility of Keats's poetic discourse-the way his poetry seems to manifest presence and identity only to immediately dissolve or qualify it-through an analysis of his use of mythology in some of his odes. In his unsigned review of Endymion and Keats's 1820 volume of poems, Francis Jeffrey noted that the author borrowed little more from 'the Pagan mythology' than a 'general conception', bestowing 'an original character and distinct individuality' upon the beings he peopled his poetry with. The mythical figures invoked in Keats's poems are at once allusive and elusive. One way Keats achieves this effect is by subordinating the traditional mythological identity of these characters to the fact of their physicality; and he also uses a number of other techniques and strategies which work within the poems in conjunction with such foregrounding. The very form of the ode-stanzas, composed as they are of interconnected but ultimately self-contained units, contributes to enhance this effect of fluidity. This essay aims to explore how Keats's poetics of dissolution are vital to some of his achievements as a poet.

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Keats’ Medical Milieu

Liverpool University Press eBooks, Feb 29, 2020

This chapter offers an account of the London teaching hospitals to show that Keats had privileged... more This chapter offers an account of the London teaching hospitals to show that Keats had privileged access to intellectual capital. London was a hotbed of intellectual ferment, as embodied by professional bodies like the Guy’s Hospital Physical Society and which found expression in the Vitalism Debates. The milieu within which Keats lived and worked is explored, focusing particularly upon characteristic aspects of Romantic medical training that are now obsolete, such as dissection of corpses freshly exhumed by ‘resurrection men’. The only known account of Keats in action as a surgeon is discussed, revealing that Keats was not fully persuaded by the prevailing Brunonian hypothesis of physiology. The chapter draws upon unpublished contemporary manuscripts in dating Keats’ medical notes, thus resolving an important and hitherto uncertain issue.

John Keats' Medical Notebook: Text, Context, and Poems

John Keats's medical notebook and the poet's career : an editorial, critical and biographical reassessment

This thesis explores the significance of John Keats’s medical Notebook, and his time at Guy’s Hos... more This thesis explores the significance of John Keats’s medical Notebook, and his time at Guy’s Hospital (October 1815 – March 1817), for the poet’s career. As a primary contribution, it offers a new transcription of Keats’s medical Notebook (Appendix 1). The transcription reproduces Keats’s text and indicates the layout of his notes, but is neither a facsimile, nor a new edition: the visual form of Keats’s notes is not reproduced, nor do I offer critical annotations; commentary follows in subsequent chapters. The achievements, limitations and influence of the only edition of Keats’s medical Notebook — Maurice Buxton Forman’s from 1934 — are the subject of the first chapter, which also considers accounts of Keats’s medical career in Keats biography and criticism. Chapter two focuses on the poems Keats wrote while at Guy’s to show that the two aspects of his life — medicine and poetry — were mutually influential. Chapter three considers Keats’s medical notes in comparison to a fellow-student’s, indicating how some characteristics of Keats’s note-taking prefigure aspects of his mature poetry. Chapter four finds Endymion suffused with medical knowledge and imagery, and argues that this was a vital aspect of the poem’s depiction of passion. Chapter five suggests that the publication of Keats’s 1820 volume was greatly influenced by questions of health, medicine, and disease; concerns reflected by the poems in it, which also reveal the extent of Keats’s continued awareness of, and interest in, contemporary medical thought. In sum, the thesis argues that the origins of Keats’s poetic achievement can be traced in his medical Notebook and ‘hospital’ poems, and that the ability to infuse his poetry with medical knowledge was a vital component of Keats’s poetic power and achievement

Keats at Guy’s Hospital: Moments, Meetings, Choices and Poems

Springer eBooks, 2018

Hrileena Ghosh examines another of the buildings instrumental in bringing together, and bridging,... more Hrileena Ghosh examines another of the buildings instrumental in bringing together, and bridging, aspects of Keats’s life. Keats was enrolled at the united teaching hospitals of Guy’s and St Thomas’s, Southwark, from October 1815 to March 1817. While much is known about the literary circles he moved in during this period—from the Mathew Circle in 1815 to his introduction into the Hunt Circle in 1816—relatively little is known of the medical milieu in which he lived and worked. Hrileena Ghosh’s chapter explores that aspect of his social life during this period in winding Southwark and traces its influence in Keats’s mature poetry.

Duncan Wu, 30 Great Myths about the Romantics

Romanticism, Oct 1, 2017

John Keats and the Temporal Artery

Keats-shelley Review, Jul 2, 2020

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John Keats at Guy’s Scholar and Poet

Liverpool University Press eBooks, Feb 29, 2020

The fourth chapter opens with a detailed textual comparison, including statistical analysis of le... more The fourth chapter opens with a detailed textual comparison, including statistical analysis of lexicography, between Keats’ medical notes and those kept by his fellow-student Joshua Waddington. These prove that the two sets of notes derived from the same source and reveal that although Keats has essentially the same information as Waddington, his habits of concision, reorganization and cross-referencing mean that they are presented in a different – indeed, distinctive – form. The chapter finds that some characteristic features of Keats’ mature poetry are prefigured in his medical notes: striking imagery, verbal rhythms and verbal compression are all typical of Keats’ medical thought. Close readings of some of Keats’ most accomplished poems, including ‘Ode to a Nightingale’ and Hyperion, reveal the medical underpinning for much of his greatest poetry, in content, vocabulary, and style.

‘The Only State for the Best Sort of Poetry’

Liverpool University Press eBooks, Feb 29, 2020

This chapter looks at Keats’ 1820 volume. Its first part focuses the circumstances in which its c... more This chapter looks at Keats’ 1820 volume. Its first part focuses the circumstances in which its composition and publication took place, showing how at every turn, questions related to health, disease, medicine and death forced themselves upon Keats’ attention. This part of the chapter is recuperative, exploring how the lived experiences of biography influenced the poetry that came out of it, and evaluating the extent to which these infiltrations were consciously allowed. The concluding part reads poems from the 1820 volume – including The Eve of St Agnes, ‘Ode to a Nightingale’ and ‘Ode on Melancholy’ – showing how these function as knowing interventions to current developments in medicine. The crises that characterized Keats’ life during 1818 – 20 enabled the process of poetic composition, and significantly influenced the final form of the 1820 volume.

Scotland and Keats’s Health in 1818

Oxford University Press eBooks, Mar 24, 2022

This chapter explores Keats’s biographical circumstances during 1818 to show that they made it al... more This chapter explores Keats’s biographical circumstances during 1818 to show that they made it almost a statistical impossibility for him to emerge from that year free of a tubercular infection. Keats’s biography is read against current awareness of the conditions in which tuberculosis is most virulent, to reveal the factors that, operating in lethal combination, rendered Keats’s contraction of tuberculosis in 1818 unavoidable. These risk factors range from the circumstantial (weather), to personal decisions the consequences of which could not have been anticipated (Keats’s tour of Scotland), to contemporary medical treatments (mercury). Singly they might have been resisted, but in combination they proved lethal. As this chapter shows, it was an unfortunate conjunction of circumstances—Keats returning unwell from Scotland, then caring for his contagious brother Tom—that ensured Keats’s death sentence from pulmonary tuberculosis.

John Keats’s ‘Guy’s Hospital’ Poetry

Palgrave studies in literature, science and medicine, 2017

John Keats’s poetic and medical careers overlapped from the start. His earliest surviving poem is... more

John Keats' Medical Notebook

Liverpool University Press eBooks, Feb 29, 2020

The poet John Keats trained as a surgeon at Guy’s Hospital, London while simultaneously making hi... more The poet John Keats trained as a surgeon at Guy’s Hospital, London while simultaneously making his way as a poet. This book focuses attention on an important but hitherto neglected manuscript: the notebook Keats maintained during this time, with the premise that in Keats’ medical Notebook exists a manuscript revealing both the true depth of the poet’s medical knowledge and the significant influence this exercised on his poetry. Reconstructing the lively medical world that played a formative role in Keats’ intellectual and imaginative development, this book explores the intriguing connections between Keats’ medical knowledge and his greatest poetry. It reveals that Keats’ two careers proved mutually enabling and enriching, with their co-existence contributing greatly to his success in both. Opening with a fully annotated edition of Keats’ medical Notebook newly transcribed from the manuscript, the book offers chapters on the provenance of Keats’ medical Notebook; the ‘hospital poems’ he wrote at Guy’s; the medical milieu of Keats’ daily life; his methods of working as revealed by his medical Notebook and other archival sources; and the medical contexts that informed his composition of Endymion and his 1820 volume, Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St Agnes, and Other Poems. It shows how the visceral knowledge of human life that Keats gained at Guy’s Hospital transformed him into the ‘mighty poet of the human heart’, with new research recovering the many ways in which Keats’ creativity found expression in both his careers.

Scotland and Keats’s Health in 1818

John Keats and Romantic Scotland

John Keats at Guy’s Scholar and Poet

John Keats' Medical Notebook, 2020

John Keats’ Medical Notebook An Overview

John Keats' Medical Notebook, 2020

The first chapter offers an overview of Keats’ medical Notebook, discussing its provenance and bi... more The first chapter offers an overview of Keats’ medical Notebook, discussing its provenance and bibliographic features. It explores Keats’ engagement with his medical studies at the time he took the lecture notes, as evinced by this surviving Notebook, and finds him an attentive and successful student: he took care to keep legible notes and frequently annotated and cross-referenced them, revealing a degree of interest in his medical studies that counters traditional accounts of his indifference or disinterest. The distinctive layout of Keats’s notes is discussed, as well as the likely sources for the notes themselves. Keats’ medical Notebook was a dynamic repository of evolving knowledge to which he returned again and again: the chapter considers the only previous publication of it, as well as its treatment in popular publications including the major Keats biographies.

John Keats’ Medical Notebook An Annotated Edition

John Keats' Medical Notebook, 2020

Keats’ medical Notebook is the only autograph manuscript detailing his medical studies during his... more Keats’ medical Notebook is the only autograph manuscript detailing his medical studies during his formative period training at Guy’s Hospital, 1815–17, and this fully annotated edition of it has been newly transcribed and edited from the manuscript. The edition takes care to indicate the distinctive layout of Keats’ medical Notebook, as well as other details of bibliographic interest, offering a faithful reproduction of its contents. Editorial interventions are kept to a minimum, with the bulk of annotation and commentary restricted to the footnotes. The annotations offer contextual information, with the aim of providing sufficient context to make the notes comprehensible for readers without specialized medical knowledge: they are intended as sign-posts to assist understanding, pointing to sources of more detailed information.

‘The Only State for the Best Sort of Poetry’

John Keats' Medical Notebook, 2020

Linked Pauses: Keatsian Mythology and the Poetics of Dissolution

The Keats-Shelley Review, 2012

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Endymion and the Physiology of Passion

Liverpool University Press eBooks, Feb 29, 2020

‘Give Me Women Wine and Snuff’: A New Account of John Keats’s Poem

Keats-shelley Review, Jul 2, 2016

Linked Pauses: Keatsian Mythology and the Poetics of Dissolution

Keats-shelley Review, Apr 1, 2012

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Keats’ Medical Milieu

Liverpool University Press eBooks, Feb 29, 2020

John Keats' Medical Notebook: Text, Context, and Poems

John Keats's medical notebook and the poet's career : an editorial, critical and biographical reassessment

Keats at Guy’s Hospital: Moments, Meetings, Choices and Poems

Springer eBooks, 2018

Duncan Wu, 30 Great Myths about the Romantics

Romanticism, Oct 1, 2017

John Keats and the Temporal Artery

Keats-shelley Review, Jul 2, 2020

Download

John Keats at Guy’s Scholar and Poet

Liverpool University Press eBooks, Feb 29, 2020

‘The Only State for the Best Sort of Poetry’

Liverpool University Press eBooks, Feb 29, 2020

Scotland and Keats’s Health in 1818

Oxford University Press eBooks, Mar 24, 2022

John Keats’s ‘Guy’s Hospital’ Poetry

Palgrave studies in literature, science and medicine, 2017

John Keats’s poetic and medical careers overlapped from the start. His earliest surviving poem is... more

John Keats' Medical Notebook

Liverpool University Press eBooks, Feb 29, 2020

Scotland and Keats’s Health in 1818

John Keats and Romantic Scotland

John Keats at Guy’s Scholar and Poet

John Keats' Medical Notebook, 2020

John Keats’ Medical Notebook An Overview

John Keats' Medical Notebook, 2020

John Keats’ Medical Notebook An Annotated Edition

John Keats' Medical Notebook, 2020

‘The Only State for the Best Sort of Poetry’

John Keats' Medical Notebook, 2020

Linked Pauses: Keatsian Mythology and the Poetics of Dissolution

The Keats-Shelley Review, 2012

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Hrileena Ghosh[conference]

John Keats is a poet of physicality, who delineates precisely the structural beauty of the human ... more John Keats is a poet of physicality, who delineates precisely the structural beauty of the human body. However, he focuses on some parts of the body more than on others. One such, I suggest, is the hand. Hands often serve as a focal point for imagery in Keats’s writings. Keats’s hands were his principal instruments of action as he sought to do ‘the world some good’ – an enterprise which allied the medical vocation with the poetic for him. The frequently tactile nature of Keats’s work deriving from his interest in gestures also finds focus in his descriptions of hands. This paper suggests that Keats’s interest in hands reflected his awareness of them as instruments of action, as well as enablers of communication imparting information about emotions, intentions and health.

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John Keats' Medical Notebook contents

John Keats' Medical Notebook: Text, Context, and Poems, 2020

Contents list for book forthcoming from Liverpool University Press

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hrileena ghosh

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