Skuggor av sanning : Tidig svensk radiologi och visuell kultur

Abstract

The present study deals with the introduction and reception of x-ray images in Sweden around 1900. The general aim is to investigate two cultural contexts of the early x-ray image. It is shown that during the initial years x-ray images were wedded with photographs and film in an expanding mass visual culture. From the outset, x-ray images were also part of a more narrow medical context raising expectations of their usefulness as a diagnostic aid. The study suggests that the tension between these two areas of use - subjective seeing tied to the world of attractions and objective scientific representation - was maintained even after radiology became etablished as a new medical practice.Regarding its theoretical point of departure, this dissertation draws inspiration from the interdisciplinary field of science studies. In particular, the study of the rhetorical role of visual images in science has proven to be a fruitful approach. Here it is used to show that x-ray images were used rhetorically by physicians to persuade their colleagues of the credibility of scientific results. Also, it demonstrates that the relationship between medical science and popular science was more dynamic than has often been asserted. As a complement to science studies this analysis also draws theoretical support from another interdisciplinary field of research; that of visual culture or alternatively visual studies. Researchers in this field study the meaning that seeing and the visual aspects of a broad spectra of phenomena have in our culture. With this outlook amore complex image of the constitution of the new radiological discipline is created where producers and consumers have a more entangled role.

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