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May 20 at Noon: The Medical Carnivalesque: Folklore Among Physicians with Lisa Gabbert (Botkin Lecture)
This lecture offers an overview of occupational folklore among physicians in the United States today. Much of this folklore is humorous; it can also be earthy and even quite dark. Gabbert focuses specifically on folklore that emerges in physician-to-physician communication, arguing that the content and themes that emerge are strikingly parallel to the ones identified by Mikhail Bakhtin in his concept of the carnivalesque. Bakhtin’s understanding of the carnivalesque was drawn from his analysis of medieval and early modern European culture, particularly pre-Lenten Carnival and the marketplace. These themes, which target relations between life and death, sickness, the body, and authoritative truth, unequivocally resonate in medical contexts. As an occupation, medicine is permeated by the suffering of both patients and physicians. This occupational context of suffering is the basis for the medical carnivalesque. Examples and materials are drawn from interviews conducted with physicians for the Archie Green Occupational Folklife Project, as well as published, archival, and online sources, and personal observations.
Lisa Gabbert is Professor of Folklore Studies in the Department of English and Director of the Folklore Program at Utah State University. Her research interests are in the areas of folklore and landscape, festivity and play, and occupational folklore in medical contexts. She is the author of "Winter Carnival in a Western Town: Identity, Change, and the Good of the Community" (2011, Utah State University Press), with Keiko Wells, "An Introduction to Vernacular Culture in America: Society, Region, and Tradition" (2017 Maruzen Press, Tokyo) and "The Medical Carnivalesque: Folklore among Physicians" (Indiana University Press 2024).
The Botkin Lecture series is part of AFC's ongoing public programming activities highlighting the fields of folklife, ethnomusicology, oral history and related disciplines; foregrounding its archival holdings; and fulfilling its congressionally mandated mission.
Free and Open to the public, but tickets are required.
Accessible seating is available upon request. Please request ADA accommodations at least five days in advance by contacting 202-707-6362 or ada@loc.gov.
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