Description

Book Synopsis

The image of the nurse is ubiquitous, both in life and in popular media. One of the earliest instances of nursing and media intersecting is the Edison phonographic recording of Florence Nightingale''s voice in 1890. Since then, a parade of nurses, good, bad or otherwise, has appeared on both cinema and television screens. How do we interpret the many different types of nurses--real and fictional, lifelike and distorted, sexual and forbidding--who are so visible in the public consciousness?

This book is a comprehensive collection of unique insights from scholars across the Western world. Essays explore a diversity of nursing types that traverse popular characterizations of nurses from various time periods. The shifting roles of nurses are explored across media, including picture postcards, film, television, journalism and the collection and preservation of uniforms and memorabilia.



Table of Contents
Introduction
Barbara Harmes, Meredith A. Harmes and Marcus K. Harmes
Section One: Contested Heroines
Florence on Film: Representations of Nightingale in Cinema and on Television
Richard Bates
"Women bow": The Shifting Power Dynamics Between Nurses and Doctors in Tenko
Mark Aldridge
The Death of Judy Hill: Arctic Nurses, Northern Bush Pilots and the Crash of '72
Travis Hay
A "Complex Personal Problem": Reactions to Voluntary Sterilization in 1960s Media
Caitlin Fendley
M*A*S*H*e*d and Harassed? Nurse Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan as Gendered Hate Object
Susan Hopkins
Section Two: Seeking the Ideal
Caps, Capes, Pins and Scrapbooks: Popular Nursing Objects of Remembrance
Jeannine Uribe
Picture Perfect? Postcard Images of Nurses and Nursing, 1890–1920
Julia Hallam
Seeking Standards: Nurses Real and Fictional and Their Professional Standards in British Popular Culture
Marcus K. Harmes, Barbara Harmes and Meredith A. Harmes
In Search of Sympathy: Stereotypes and Stiff Upper Lips in Interwar Nursing
Sarah Chaney
Nostalgia for Spiritual Community Care: Midwifery as Religious Calling in Call the Midwife
Morag Martin
Media Representation of the Nursing Queen Archetype in Its Socio-Cultural Context
Merle Talvik, Taimi Tulva, Ülle Ernits and Kristi Puusepp
Section Three: When Nurses Go Wrong
Not My Nurse: Pessimism in Representations of Nurses in 1970s Cinema
Victoria N. Meyer
Lesbians, Nymphomaniacs, and Enema Specialists: Nurses, Horror, and Agency
Marcus K. Harmes, Meredith A. Harmes and Barbara Harmes
Scary Women: Nurses, Power Relations and Regimes of the Visual
Ronja ­Tripp-Bodola
Eroticizing the Nurse: (Bi/Homo)Sexuality and Monstrosity in Nurse 3D
Tatiana ­Prorokova-Konrad
About the Contributors
Index

The Nurse in Popular Media

    Product form

    £27.54

    Includes FREE delivery

    RRP £28.99 – you save £1.45 (5%)

    Order before 4pm tomorrow for delivery by Tue 23 Jun 2026.

    A Paperback by Barbara Harmes, Meredith A. Harmes

    Out of stock

      Trusted by thousands of customers. See 2,385+ Customer Reviews

      View other formats and editions of The Nurse in Popular Media by

      Publisher: McFarland & Co Inc
      Publication Date: 1/1/2021 12:11:00 AM
      ISBN13: 9781476684185, 978-1476684185
      ISBN10: 1476684189

      Description

      Book Synopsis

      The image of the nurse is ubiquitous, both in life and in popular media. One of the earliest instances of nursing and media intersecting is the Edison phonographic recording of Florence Nightingale''s voice in 1890. Since then, a parade of nurses, good, bad or otherwise, has appeared on both cinema and television screens. How do we interpret the many different types of nurses--real and fictional, lifelike and distorted, sexual and forbidding--who are so visible in the public consciousness?

      This book is a comprehensive collection of unique insights from scholars across the Western world. Essays explore a diversity of nursing types that traverse popular characterizations of nurses from various time periods. The shifting roles of nurses are explored across media, including picture postcards, film, television, journalism and the collection and preservation of uniforms and memorabilia.



      Table of Contents
      Introduction
      Barbara Harmes, Meredith A. Harmes and Marcus K. Harmes
      Section One: Contested Heroines
      Florence on Film: Representations of Nightingale in Cinema and on Television
      Richard Bates
      "Women bow": The Shifting Power Dynamics Between Nurses and Doctors in Tenko
      Mark Aldridge
      The Death of Judy Hill: Arctic Nurses, Northern Bush Pilots and the Crash of '72
      Travis Hay
      A "Complex Personal Problem": Reactions to Voluntary Sterilization in 1960s Media
      Caitlin Fendley
      M*A*S*H*e*d and Harassed? Nurse Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan as Gendered Hate Object
      Susan Hopkins
      Section Two: Seeking the Ideal
      Caps, Capes, Pins and Scrapbooks: Popular Nursing Objects of Remembrance
      Jeannine Uribe
      Picture Perfect? Postcard Images of Nurses and Nursing, 1890–1920
      Julia Hallam
      Seeking Standards: Nurses Real and Fictional and Their Professional Standards in British Popular Culture
      Marcus K. Harmes, Barbara Harmes and Meredith A. Harmes
      In Search of Sympathy: Stereotypes and Stiff Upper Lips in Interwar Nursing
      Sarah Chaney
      Nostalgia for Spiritual Community Care: Midwifery as Religious Calling in Call the Midwife
      Morag Martin
      Media Representation of the Nursing Queen Archetype in Its Socio-Cultural Context
      Merle Talvik, Taimi Tulva, Ülle Ernits and Kristi Puusepp
      Section Three: When Nurses Go Wrong
      Not My Nurse: Pessimism in Representations of Nurses in 1970s Cinema
      Victoria N. Meyer
      Lesbians, Nymphomaniacs, and Enema Specialists: Nurses, Horror, and Agency
      Marcus K. Harmes, Meredith A. Harmes and Barbara Harmes
      Scary Women: Nurses, Power Relations and Regimes of the Visual
      Ronja ­Tripp-Bodola
      Eroticizing the Nurse: (Bi/Homo)Sexuality and Monstrosity in Nurse 3D
      Tatiana ­Prorokova-Konrad
      About the Contributors
      Index

      Recently viewed products

      © 2026 Book Curl

        • American Express
        • Apple Pay
        • Diners Club
        • Discover
        • Google Pay
        • Maestro
        • Mastercard
        • PayPal
        • Shop Pay
        • Union Pay
        • Visa

        Login

        Forgot your password?

        Don't have an account yet?
        Create account