Sir Ronald Ross (1857-1932): The literary self-fashioning of a colonial medico-scientific researcher

Orr, Charlotte Elizabeth (2021) Sir Ronald Ross (1857-1932): The literary self-fashioning of a colonial medico-scientific researcher. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

This thesis interrogates the self-fashioning of Sir Ronald Ross, K.C.B., K.C.M.G., M.D., D.Sc., L.LD., F.R.C.S., F.R.S., I.M.S. (1857-1932), parasitologist, surgeon-apothecary, writer, and polymath. While recent Ross scholarship focuses on materials from the Ross Collection at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), I examine the underexplored Ross Collection at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow (RCPSG), which contains most of the archival material relating to his literary career. Consequently, this work provides the first sustained critique of Ross’s published literary works, examining his Memoirs: with a full account of the great malaria problem and its solution (1923), published novels, poetry collections, and his editorship of and contributions to the popular science magazine, Science Progress.

Each thesis chapter focuses on a different form of writing penned by Ross and published during his lifetime. Chapter One concentrates on Ross’s self-fashioning as neglected suffering scientist in Memoirs. Ross complicates what George Levine coined the ‘dying-to-know’ narrative, infusing this accepted narrative with a ‘telling of the self’ to create a distinct scientific autobiography. Chapter Two examines the didacticism of Ross’s three published romances, exploring the change in Ross’s branding before and after his celebrated malaria discovery. I argue that Ross’s first two novels, The Child of Ocean (1889) and The Spirit of Storm (1896), dramatise the importance of medical and scientific knowledge and the relevance of that knowledge to British health and imperialism, while Ross’s third novel, The Revels of Orsera (1920), works as an allegory regarding the neglected hero. Chapter Three uses Jessica Howell’s claim that Ross creates a ‘heroic narrative’ and ‘coherent arc’ in his poem ‘In Exile’ to examine whether this assertion can be made about Ross’s entire poetry corpus, uncovering his self-fashioning as refined physician-poet and public authority. Chapter Four focuses on Ross’s self-fashioning as a potential post-war technocratic leader in Science Progress. The chapter interrogates Ross’s development of a public ideology for scientists during the 1916 Neglect-of-Science debate, a debate in ‘which politicians, scientists, and other social commentators discussed whether Britain’s ill fortunes in the war were a result of neglecting scientific research.’ The thesis conclusion briefly explores Ross’s recent cultural memorialisation and his refashioning for modern-day audiences in Amitav Ghosh’s The Calcutta Chromosome (1995).

Ultimately, through examining Ross’s little-known literary work, this thesis offers insights into the self-fashioning of the colonial surgeon and the celebrity medico-scientific researcher; the narrativisation of science in fin de siècle scientific life writing; Ross’s contribution to the romance genre during the romance revival; the use of poetry as a tool to highlight and advance the cultural authority of science, and the key role of popular science magazine Science Progress during the Neglect-of-Science debate.

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Subjects: P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General)
• Colleges/Schools: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Critical Studies
• Supervisor's Name: Coyer, Dr. Megan, Miller, Dr. Gavin and Small, Dr. Douglas
• Date of Award: 2021
• Depositing User: Theses Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:2021-82361
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 02 Aug 2021 09:37
• Last Modified: 26 Aug 2024 13:54
• Thesis DOI: 10.5525/gla.thesis.82361
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/82361