Medicalizing Difference: The Eighteenth-Century Construction of the ""Hermaphrodite""

— —

Stephanie M. Hilger (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA)

Medicalizing Difference

Name: Medicalizing Difference
Price: 59.99 AUD
Availability: OutOfStock
ISBN: 9781350374966

The Eighteenth-Century Construction of the ""Hermaphrodite""

Stephanie M. Hilger (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA)

$59.99

Paperback

Not in-store but you can order this
How long will it take?

Availability Information

We source books from suppliers in Australia and overseas. For books we don't currently have in stock, the time it takes to get them from our suppliers can vary widely - from a few days to a few months - so we check each book with each supplier to determine the expected time it will take to be supplied to us.

We will update you on expected arrival time to us. If this delay is too long, please let us know within 2 business days and we can give you options regarding cancelling or adjusting your order. More details on cancelling your order can be found in our Terms of Trade.

To find out the anticipated arrival time for specific items prior to ordering, please contact us by phone or email:

Phone +61 2 9264 3111, or 1800 4 BOOKS (1800 4 26657) if outside Sydney:
option 1 Abbey's Bookshop (Crime, History, Science, Kids & more) • info@abbeys.com.au
option 2 Language Book Centre (ESL & Foreign Languages) • language@abbeys.com.au
option 3 Galaxy Bookshop (Sci-fi, Fantasy, Romance, Graphic Novels) • sf@galaxybooks.com.au

QTY:

English

Bloomsbury Academic
28 May 2026

Literary studies: c 1500 to c 1800; Medical sociology; History of medicine

Series: Critical Interventions in the Medical and Health Humanities

Exploring 18th-century medicine’s construction of individuals with non-standard sexual anatomy as “hermaphrodites”, this book focuses on the genre of the case history from three different languages and national contexts—British, French, and German.

Medicalizing Difference examines case studies written about Anne Grandjean, Michel Anne Drouart, Maria Dorothea Derrier, and an unnamed “Angolan hermaphrodite.” Multiple case studies were published about each of these individuals and are discussed throughout the book's four chapters, each of which focuses on one momentous epistemological shift in the eighteenth-century: an increasing focus on empiricism and the related professionalization of medicine, the expanding market for popular scientific literature, changing notions about generation and reproduction, and the exploration of foreign territories.

This book reads these case histories against the grain and historicizes 18th-century medicine’s construction of the category of the “hermaphrodite”, demonstrating that, rather than describing a fact, these histories created their subject of study

By: Stephanie M. Hilger (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign USA)
Imprint: Bloomsbury Academic
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 232mm, Width: 154mm, Spine: 14mm
Weight: 320g
ISBN: 9781350374966
ISBN 10: 1350374962
Series: Critical Interventions in the Medical and Health Humanities
Pages: 208
Publication Date: 28 May 2026
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Stephanie M. Hilger is Professor of Comparative Literature and German at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA.

Reviews for Medicalizing Difference: The Eighteenth-Century Construction of the ""Hermaphrodite""

""Stephanie M. Hilger is a respected expert in the field of intersex in eighteenth century Europe, which this book will further confirm."" --KJ Dykstra, Independent Scholar, Canada