Azorín and medical language: from science in verse to humanism

Abstract

This article examines Azorín's interest in medicine and its professionals, the medical bibliography (historic and of his
time); therapeutics (macrobiotics, organotherapy, etc), based on his
own illness (neurasthenia), which he explores in his writing in order
to better understand himself. His preoccupation with style not only
led the author to handle language correctly, but also to exhibit his
stylistic ideal in novels and essays; to read medical reports as
literary models for his prose due to their concision and clarity, and
to use medical jargon in his articles ( El doctor, 1944), essays
(Los médicos, 1966), short stories (Blanco en azul, 1929) and novels (Diario de un enfermo, 1901; El enfermo, 1943...); all of which reveals the importance that the author attached to the relationship between Medicine and Humanities and his admiration for physician-writers such as Baroja, Duhamel, Marañón and Ramón y Cajal.