| Summary: | This article outlines two common approaches within French Studies
scholarship to the medical content of literary texts: a discursive-
based approach designated here as ‘pathological’, and an approach
focused on narratives of the experience of human suffering, illness
and recovery designated ‘pathographical’. The article, aiming to
situate French Studies scholarship in relation to Medical Humanities,
identifies tensions between the two approaches before identifying
common ground in adopting them productively in relation to works
by Émile Zola – an archetype of the ‘pathological’ author – and
Marcel Proust, author of the emblematic ‘autopathographical’
narrative. Both authors’ works contain numerous instances of
‘medical humanities’ preoccupations, approachable from both
‘pathological’ and ‘pathographical’ perspectives.
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