Public Health Issues Due to Forms of Hyperreality in John Barth’s Select Novels: A Postmodern Medical Humanities Perspective

Abstract

Jean Baudrillard’s “hyperreality” and “consumerism” are much studied in humanities and social sciences in terms of postmodernism, but not much in medical or paramedical sciences. Because, if one writes, it raises many objectionable questions related to judicious developments of human society. John Barth’s novels are also studied in terms of the postmodern human culture. Both the authors represent postmodernity. But, there are few literature on the connection between hyperreality and public health and its reflections in the novels of John Barth. This paper explores this new thread of observations. First of all hyperreality and forms of contemporary hyperreality in digital healthcare scenario will be defined and illustrated with suitable narratives from the novels of John Barth.