Bodies in Genres of Practice: Johann Ulrich Bilguer’s Fight to Reduce Field Amputations

This paper examines Johann Ulrich Bilguer’s 1761 dissertation on the inutility ofamputation practices, examining reasons for its influence despite its nonconformance to genreexpectations. I argue that Bilguer’s narratives of patient suffering, his rhetorical likening ofsurgeons to soldiers, and his attention to the horrific experiences of war surgeons all contributeto the dissertation’s wide impact. Ultimately, the dissertation offers an example of affectiverhetorics employed during the Enlightenment, demonstrating how bodies and environments—those Bambient rhetorics^ made visible in a text—can contribute to an analysis of genredeviations and widen the scope of genre studies.