The Universitat Jaume I explores medical references in Shakespeare’s work



[Valencià](/upo/rest/publicacion/idioma/ca?urlRedirect=https://www.uji.es/com/investigacio/arxiu/noticies/2017/3/medicina_shakespeare/&url=/com/investigacio/arxiu/noticies/2017/3/medicina_shakespeare/&urlRedirect=http://www.uji.es/com/investigacio/arxiu/noticies/2017/3/medicina_shakespeare/ "Cambiar idioma a català")
[Español](/upo/rest/publicacion/idioma/es?urlRedirect=https://www.uji.es/com/investigacio/arxiu/noticies/2017/3/medicina_shakespeare/&url=/com/investigacio/arxiu/noticies/2017/3/medicina_shakespeare/&urlRedirect=http://www.uji.es/com/investigacio/arxiu/noticies/2017/3/medicina_shakespeare/ "Cambiar idioma a español")
[English](#0)

Mobile menu

* [Profile](#0)
  + [Future students](/perfils/futurs/)
  + [UJI students](/perfils/estudiantat/uji/)
  + [PDI-PI](/perfils/pdipas/base/pdi/)
  + [PTGAS](/perfils/pdipas/base/pas/)
  + [AlumniSAUJI](/serveis/alumnisauji/)
  + [Companies and institutions](/perfils/empresa/)
* [Tools](#0)
  + [Virtual Classroom](https://aulavirtual.uji.es/)
  + [CAU](https://cau.uji.es/)
  + [Directory](//www.uji.es/institucional/contacta/)
  + [Gmail](http://gmail.uji.es/)
  + [Intranet (IGLU)](//www.uji.es/upo/rest/iglu/)
  + [Virtual Office](/seu/)
  + [Academic information (SIA)](http://sia.uji.es/)
  + [Others](//www.uji.es/serveis/scp/eines/)
* [Valencià](/upo/rest/publicacion/idioma/ca?urlRedirect=https://www.uji.es/com/investigacio/arxiu/noticies/2017/3/medicina_shakespeare/&url=/com/investigacio/arxiu/noticies/2017/3/medicina_shakespeare/&urlRedirect=http://www.uji.es/com/investigacio/arxiu/noticies/2017/3/medicina_shakespeare/ "Cambiar idioma a català")
  [Español](/upo/rest/publicacion/idioma/es?urlRedirect=https://www.uji.es/com/investigacio/arxiu/noticies/2017/3/medicina_shakespeare/&url=/com/investigacio/arxiu/noticies/2017/3/medicina_shakespeare/&urlRedirect=http://www.uji.es/com/investigacio/arxiu/noticies/2017/3/medicina_shakespeare/ "Cambiar idioma a español")
  [English](#0)

[# Universitat Jaume I](/)

* [# Universitat Jaume I](/)
* [Profile](#0)
  + [Future students](/perfils/futurs/)
  + [UJI students](/perfils/estudiantat/uji/)
  + [PDI-PI](/perfils/pdipas/base/pdi/)
  + [PTGAS](/perfils/pdipas/base/pas/)
  + [AlumniSAUJI](/serveis/alumnisauji/)
  + [Companies and institutions](/perfils/empresa/)
* [Tools](#0)
  + [Virtual Classroom](https://aulavirtual.uji.es/)
  + [CAU](https://cau.uji.es/)
  + [Directory](//www.uji.es/institucional/contacta/)
  + [Gmail](http://gmail.uji.es/)
  + [Intranet (IGLU)](//www.uji.es/upo/rest/iglu/)
  + [Virtual Office](/seu/)
  + [Academic information (SIA)](http://sia.uji.es/)
  + [Others](//www.uji.es/serveis/scp/eines/)
* [Studies](/mapa/estudis/)
  + [Studies](/mapa/estudis/)
  + [Bachelor’s degrees](/estudis/)
  + [University master’s degrees](/estudis/?p_estudio=m)
  + [Doctoral studies](/estudis/oferta/doctorat/)
  + [Lifelong learning](/estudis/base/formacio-permanent/)
* [Research and innovation](/investigacio/)
  + [Research and innovation](/investigacio/)
  + [Research portal](/investigacio/)
  + [Innovation](/innovacio/)
  + [Doctoral studies](/centres/escola-doctorat/)
  + [HRS4R](/investigacio/hrs4r/)
* [International](/internacional/)
  + [International](/internacional/)
  + [International Students](/internacional/base/estudiantat/estudiantado-internacional/)
  + [Exchange Programmes](/serveis/ori/base/programes-intercanvi/)
  + [Study Abroad](/internacional/base/study-abroad/)
* [UJI](/mapa/uji/)
  + [UJI](/mapa/uji/)
  + [Get to know the UJI](/mapa/uji/coneix-uji/)
  + [Structure and organisation](/institucional/estructura/)
  + [Strategy and quality](/institucional/estrategia/)
  + [Transparency](/transparencia/)
  + [Public integrity](/transparencia/liniaetica/)
  + [News](/actualitat/)
  + [Contact the UJI](/institucional/contacta/)
* [University life](/mapa/vida-universitaria/)
  + [University life](/mapa/serveis/)
  + [Library](/serveis/cd/)
  + [Campus](/mapa/uji/coneix-uji/campus/)
  + [Culture](/cultura/)
  + [Sports](/esports/)
  + [InfoCampus](/serveis/infocampus/)

[UJI](/)
[News](/com/sumari/noticies/)

## The Universitat Jaume I explores medical references in Shakespeare’s work The lecturer Vicente Montalt delves into the bridges between theatre and medicine through an innovative approach in the study of the work of the English classic within the framework of “medical humanities”

05/04/2017 |
SCP

Compartir

Compartir

×

Linkedin

BlueSky

Facebook

Mastodon

Whatsapp

Gmail

Imprimir

![Aerial view of the campus](//static.uji.es/templates/uji2016_plantillas/static/images/campusaerea.jpg)

[Accept third-party cookies](#)

[Watch the video on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/embed/T4xH244LW1s)

A research developed by the Department of Translation and Communication from the Universitat Jaume I (UJI) explores the medical references in the work of the English playwright William Shakespeare. Vicent Montalt, lecturer of Translation and Communication, publishes a series of articles in the journal *Panace@* where he deepens the bridges between theatre and medicine through an innovative approach in the study on the work of the English classic within the framework of the Anglo-Saxon tendency known as *medical humanities*.

In Montalt’s opinion, Shakespeare’s work (1564-1616) is “a kind of laboratory where the playwright experiences as a scientist with bodies, emotions, feelings, ideas, politics, and any aspect relevant to the human being”. Consequently, a better understanding of the English playwright’s compositional methods and how he links the different planes — corporal, physical, political and aesthetic — “can inspire models of thought and communication extrapolable and adaptable to today’s world,” he adds.

According to Montalt, this author, who is a reference in world literature, is completely truffled with medical references in all his works: *Hamlet* is the best known case, but also in *Richard II, Richard III, Coriolanus, Romeo and Juliet, King Lear, The Tempest, Henry V, Henry VIII, A Midsummer Night’s Dream*, *Julius Caesar, Troilus and Cressida*, to name a few, and even in his sonnets. Wherever you seek, you find them and, in addition, in the broad sense, in allusion to the body and its transformations; to the mind; to emotions and feelings”. In short, as Montalt states, the Shakespearean work is “a great compendium of aspects that have to do with health and illness on the physical, psychic and social levels.”

One of the main focuses of Vicent Montalt’s research is that Shakespeare was not only fascinated by the medicine of his time, but also enjoyed extensive medical knowledge acquired through different means, a powerful resource that enables him to pour over the page and over the scenario an anthropological conception of reality of a phenomenological, physicalist and empiricist character.

In the construction of his aesthetic, political, and psychological universe, William Shakespeare uses a great diversity of more or less direct metaphors, images, similes, analogies, comparisons, and references concerning health and illness, according to Montalt’s works. For example, in the historical tragedy of *Richard II* he uses conceptual networks such as cholera, blood letting, incision, patient, purge or doctor, to construct the physical, emotional, mental and political spheres of the characters of the work and show them to an audience avid for new knowledge and experiences.

Vicent Montalt says that his activity as a translator, lecturer and researcher in the field of scientific-technical and medical translation “has been a key element in studying Shakespeare from this innovative perspective”. He also points out that the researches carried out by the neurologist and director of the University of Southern California’s Brain and Creativity Institute, Antonio Damasio, have been very inspiring for him in rediscovering Shakespeare from the point of view of science and medicine.

**BRIDGES BETWEEN THEATER AND MEDICINE**

One of the main objectives of Vicent Montalt’s research, besides “restoring the forgotten bridges between theatre and medicine”, has been the demand for a better understanding of Shakespeare’s work from the scientific and medical point of view because this playwright “is a proto-scientific of the body, the mind and the society. He is a visionary author who, like Galileo, Spinoza, Leibniz and many others, gives us his perspective to the present and transfers it; his characters explore a wide range of situations and possibilities of behaviour and interaction. In fact, these dramaturgical creations are the result of the historical moment that the playwright lived in London, “a time of intense boiling and scientific revolution that he, as an observer of reality, incorporates into his work and transforms into theatre; thus, at the same time, we can approach the medical knowledge of his time,” he explains.

Vicent Montalt is a lecturer at the Department of Translation and Communication from the Universitat Jaume I. He is also a visiting lecturer at University College London and lecturer at several European universities. Educated as a theatrical translator at the Shakespeare Institute from the University of Valencia, he is the author of a doctoral thesis on Shakespeare, orality and intertextuality (1996). He directs the Master’s Degree in Medical and Healthcare Translation at the UJI (member of the European Commission’s EMT network) and is a member of the GENTT research group (www.gentt.uji.es), where he is currently the principal researcher of two projects on clinical communication in multicultural and multilingual contexts focused on the use of dramaturgies as innovative methodologies. He is a member of an Explora project on language and culture of health, with the participation of researchers from several universities in Spain, and also of the Interuniversity Institute for Applied Modern Languages (IULMA). He is the author of numerous articles and books on theatrical, scientific and medical translation, healthcare communication, bibliometrics, online translation pedagogy, and Shakespeare and medicine. Now, he is carrying out a research stay at the López Piñero Institute of History of Medicine and Science at the Universitat de València.

[**Videonews**](https://youtu.be/T4xH244LW1s)

**Online access to full articles:**

<http://www.medtrad.org/panacea/IndiceGeneral/n41_tribuna_montalt.pdf>

<http://www.tremedica.org/panacea/IndiceGeneral/n43_tribuna-VMontalt.pdf>

Information provided by:
[Communication and Publications Service](/serveis/scp/)

About us

[Home](/com/investigacio/cienciauji/)
[UCC+I](/serveis/scp/ucc/)

Research dissemination

[Ciència TV blog](/com/investigacio/arxiu/ciencia-uji-tv/)
[Ciència UJI newsletter](/com/investigacio/arxiu/ciencia-uji/)
[Horizon Europe newsletter](/com/investigacio/docs/butlleti-horizon-europe/)
[Comboi, a trip through science](/com/investigacio/docs/podcast-comboi-viatge-per-la-ciencia/)
[Scientific news](/com/investigacio/sumari/noticies/ )
[Easy reading news](/com/investigacio/docs/noticies-de-lectura-facil)
[News magazine. Research](/com/revista/tematica/investiga/)
[Radio](http://www.radio.uji.es/programa.php?id=46 )

Scientific divulgation

[Experimenta UJI](/com/investigacio/docs/experimenta-uji/)
[Innobar, con b de bar (Espaitec)](https://espaitec.uji.es/podcast-innobar-con-b-de-bar/)
[Magazine «Humanes i Socials»](https://humanesisocials.uji.es)
[H2020 Projects](/com/investigacio/docs/butlleti-h2020/)
[Projects and papers COVID-19](/com/investigacio/docs/estudis-articles-covid-19/)
[Research pitches](/com/investigacio/research-pitches/)
[The Conversation](/com/investigacio/docs/the-conversation/)
[UJI Divulga (Onda Cero)](/com/investigacio/docs/uji-divulga-onda-cero/)
[Scientific vocabulary](/com/investigacio/docs/vocabulari-cientific/)

Projects and studies

[Projects and studies](/serveis/scp/ucc/projectes/)

Resources of interest

[Divulgateca](http://www.divulgateca.es)

External networks

[CRUE](https://www.crue.org/)
[FECYT](https://www.fecyt.es/es/info/que-son)
[RUVID](https://ruvid.org/)



Useful links

[University card](http://www.carnet.uji.es/)

[Multimedia catalogue](http://jecom.uji.es/)

[University press](/serveis/scp/publ/)

[Web map](//www.uji.es/mapa/)

[Educational model](//www.uji.es/institucional/estrategia/modeleducatiu/)

[Language Observatory](/serveis/ol/)

[Open Knowledge Portal](/serveis/cd/bib/pco/)

[UJI shop](http://www.tenda.uji.es/)

[Security and privacy center](https://www.uji.es/organs/ouag/sg/docs/politiques/gen/)
|
[Website legal notice](https://www.uji.es/comu/avislegal/avislegalicondicions/)
|
[Accessibility policy](https://www.uji.es/serveis/ura/base/accessibilitat/)

Information and queries:
[UJI suggestion box](/comu/forms/bustia)

Universitat Jaume I CIF: Q-6250003-H Av. Vicent Sos Baynat, s/n 12071
Castellón de la Plana,
España

Tel.: +34 964 72 80 00