Racing Pulses: Gender, Professionalism and Health Care in Medical Romance Fiction | Zendy

Agnes ArnoldForster | Zendy

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Racing Pulses: Gender, Professionalism and Health Care in Medical Romance Fiction

Author(s) -

Agnes ArnoldForster

Publication year - 2021

Publication title -

history workshop journal

Language(s) - English

Resource type - Journals

eISSN - 1477-4569

pISSN - 1363-3554

DOI - 10.1093/hwj/dbab011

Subject(s) - romance , identity (music) , health care , gender studies , set (abstract data type) , service (business) , welfare , sociology , nursing , literature , medicine , art , law , aesthetics , political science , business , marketing , computer science , programming language

Following the foundation of the NHS in 1948, a new sub-genre of romantic fiction emerged: ‘Doctor–Nurse’ romances, usually involving romance between a male doctor and a female nurse, were set in NHS hospitals. Drawing on the Mills & Boon archive and the novels themselves, this article explores representations of the health service and notions of gendered healthcare professionalism in postwar Britain. I argue that rather than presenting ‘retrograde’ and ‘limited’ views of women’s lives, medical Mills & Boon novels frequently put forward nuanced versions of womanhood, professional identity, clinical labour, and the effective functioning of the welfare state.

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