PAMLA 2023 120th Annual Conference

Portland, Oregon, USA

Thursday, October 26 – Sunday, October 29, 2023

THE APOTHECARY: TRANSFORMED REALITIES AND NOMADIC IMAGINARIES

Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Natsu Hyuuga’s The Apothecary Diaries, Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, Flaubert’s Madame Bovary, Camus’ La peste, in all and more the apothecary plays a secondary yet marking part. This part changed and moved through time, as the apothecary wore many faces and took on many symbolisms. Among others, it can be a unifying figure, a healer, an obscure individual, a “quack,” a mystical or magical being, a peddler of tinctures and oils, a listener and a bringer of news, good and bad.

This special session explores all sorts of representations of the apothecary in works of literature, films and visual arts, with a focus on how these representations can speak to one another, clash and intermix. A second emphasis is put on the cultural, economic, and political roles these representations may play in society.

Paper proposals are welcome on topics including but not limited to: thresholds between traditional and contemporary medicine; the modern apothecary; conscientious apothecaries and charlatans; the apothecary and the transmission of knowledge; the apothecary as a thematic representation of fate; the doctor, the apothecary and the chemist; herbal medicine, potions and grimoires; the apothecary and the drug trade; the travelling apothecary as a conduit to the outside world and bringer of news in isolated rural areas; the relationship between the physical and the spiritual in ancient medicine; historical evolution of the apothecary’s civic role of care-giver.

Send abstracts (250-500 words) to Alix Mazuet, amazuet@stanford.edu or submit directly on PAMLA website: https://pamla.ballastacademic.com/Home/S/18932