Cheryl Mattingly and Linda C. Garro
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520218246
- eISBN:
- 9780520935228
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520218246.003.0004
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Medical Anthropology
This chapter views illness narratives as guides to present and future actions, specifically through the refashioning of social roles in local cultural worlds. It draws on fieldwork with Mexican ...
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This chapter views illness narratives as guides to present and future actions, specifically through the refashioning of social roles in local cultural worlds. It draws on fieldwork with Mexican cancer patients and studies the illness narratives of two Mexican cancer patients who have had surgery where part of their reproductive systems were removed. This chapter connects the strategic construction of illness narratives with the reconstruction of gender roles, a process that effectively transformed suffering into a social asset, and role destruction into a chance for personal empowerment.Less
This chapter views illness narratives as guides to present and future actions, specifically through the refashioning of social roles in local cultural worlds. It draws on fieldwork with Mexican cancer patients and studies the illness narratives of two Mexican cancer patients who have had surgery where part of their reproductive systems were removed. This chapter connects the strategic construction of illness narratives with the reconstruction of gender roles, a process that effectively transformed suffering into a social asset, and role destruction into a chance for personal empowerment.
Stella Bolaki
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781474402422
- eISBN:
- 9781474418591
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474402422.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
The introduction provides an overview of illness narratives and illness narrative scholarship, focusing on the contested territory of narrative. Illness narratives, in the first wave of medical ...
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The introduction provides an overview of illness narratives and illness narrative scholarship, focusing on the contested territory of narrative. Illness narratives, in the first wave of medical humanities, are restricted to narratives of a certain type: the linear, progressive, story bound by the context of biomedicine and the doctor-patient encounter, which largely serve the needs of medicine. Building on the work of literary/cultural studies critics and medical humanities scholars who have challenged the instrumental direction of the medical humanities, the Introduction suggests that it is a timely moment to expand the field’s scope and existing approaches so as to make it more critical. Arguing for the inclusion of different arts and media and putting forward the idea of ‘critical interloping,’ it calls for more cross-fertilisation between contemporary arts and media practices/scholarship on the one hand and the fields of illness narratives and the medical humanities on the other. The final section of the Introduction describes the book’s chapter structure. It shows how the selected case studies open up the illness narrative category while also addressing some of its limits and conservative assumptions from within; that is, through the works’ own generic multiplicity and mixed-media nature.Less
The introduction provides an overview of illness narratives and illness narrative scholarship, focusing on the contested territory of narrative. Illness narratives, in the first wave of medical humanities, are restricted to narratives of a certain type: the linear, progressive, story bound by the context of biomedicine and the doctor-patient encounter, which largely serve the needs of medicine. Building on the work of literary/cultural studies critics and medical humanities scholars who have challenged the instrumental direction of the medical humanities, the Introduction suggests that it is a timely moment to expand the field’s scope and existing approaches so as to make it more critical. Arguing for the inclusion of different arts and media and putting forward the idea of ‘critical interloping,’ it calls for more cross-fertilisation between contemporary arts and media practices/scholarship on the one hand and the fields of illness narratives and the medical humanities on the other. The final section of the Introduction describes the book’s chapter structure. It shows how the selected case studies open up the illness narrative category while also addressing some of its limits and conservative assumptions from within; that is, through the works’ own generic multiplicity and mixed-media nature.
Cheryl Mattingly and Linda C. Garro
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520218246
- eISBN:
- 9780520935228
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520218246.003.0009
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Medical Anthropology
This chapter interweaves autobiography with material from the author's ethnographic research in order to examine the complicated relationship between illness narratives, illness experience, and ...
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This chapter interweaves autobiography with material from the author's ethnographic research in order to examine the complicated relationship between illness narratives, illness experience, and personal identity. The author uses the stories to comment about the surprises of illness and how it speaks to a person's sense of self and to raise a series of critical questions about narrative theory. It also critiques the predominance of the “I” in many autobiographical and life story accounts of illness.Less
This chapter interweaves autobiography with material from the author's ethnographic research in order to examine the complicated relationship between illness narratives, illness experience, and personal identity. The author uses the stories to comment about the surprises of illness and how it speaks to a person's sense of self and to raise a series of critical questions about narrative theory. It also critiques the predominance of the “I” in many autobiographical and life story accounts of illness.
Christina M. Puchalski
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- November 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195146820
- eISBN:
- 9780199999866
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195146820.003.0016
- Subject:
- Palliative Care, Patient Care and End-of-Life Decision Making, Palliative Medicine and Older People
This chapter discusses the importance of storytelling and narratives in honoring the patient's story while providing end-of-life care. It explains that an illness narrative portrays signs, symptoms, ...
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This chapter discusses the importance of storytelling and narratives in honoring the patient's story while providing end-of-life care. It explains that an illness narrative portrays signs, symptoms, and treatment aspects as well as various ways of suffering, and that it helps the caregiver to interact effectively with a suffering patient. The chapter discusses the use of stories in the education of caregivers, the teaching of medical students to practice patient narrative, and the role of the caregiver in the narrative.Less
This chapter discusses the importance of storytelling and narratives in honoring the patient's story while providing end-of-life care. It explains that an illness narrative portrays signs, symptoms, and treatment aspects as well as various ways of suffering, and that it helps the caregiver to interact effectively with a suffering patient. The chapter discusses the use of stories in the education of caregivers, the teaching of medical students to practice patient narrative, and the role of the caregiver in the narrative.
Cheryl Mattingly and Linda C. Garro
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520218246
- eISBN:
- 9780520935228
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520218246.003.0003
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Medical Anthropology
This chapter explains how the interplay of personal experience and cultural knowledge shapes illness narratives. It examines how cultural knowledge can become a resource in guiding remembering about ...
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This chapter explains how the interplay of personal experience and cultural knowledge shapes illness narratives. It examines how cultural knowledge can become a resource in guiding remembering about the past and shows how individual accounts draw strength and supposed truth as they are found within accounts of a collective past. This chapter is grounded in cognitive theories of both memory and narrative.Less
This chapter explains how the interplay of personal experience and cultural knowledge shapes illness narratives. It examines how cultural knowledge can become a resource in guiding remembering about the past and shows how individual accounts draw strength and supposed truth as they are found within accounts of a collective past. This chapter is grounded in cognitive theories of both memory and narrative.
Catherine Belling
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199892365
- eISBN:
- 9780199950096
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199892365.003.0023
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
The final three chapter of the book consider the role of narrative in the patient's experience of hypochondria. Analysing a range of life-writing written by self-identified hypochondriacs, this ...
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The final three chapter of the book consider the role of narrative in the patient's experience of hypochondria. Analysing a range of life-writing written by self-identified hypochondriacs, this chapter suggests that while narrativity is inherent in hypochondria, the condition also challenges the conventions of pathography, both because no “real” disease is found and because the patient-narrator is considered to lack credibility. What, then, in hypochondria, constitutes a “good story”?Less
The final three chapter of the book consider the role of narrative in the patient's experience of hypochondria. Analysing a range of life-writing written by self-identified hypochondriacs, this chapter suggests that while narrativity is inherent in hypochondria, the condition also challenges the conventions of pathography, both because no “real” disease is found and because the patient-narrator is considered to lack credibility. What, then, in hypochondria, constitutes a “good story”?
Stella Bolaki
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781474402422
- eISBN:
- 9781474418591
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474402422.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
Illness narratives have become a cultural phenomenon in the Western world but their analysis continues to be framed by the context of biomedicine, the doctor-patient encounter and the demands of ...
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Illness narratives have become a cultural phenomenon in the Western world but their analysis continues to be framed by the context of biomedicine, the doctor-patient encounter and the demands of medical training. This reductive attitude prevents the inclusion of more formally experimental genres, different themes and interdisciplinary methods within the field. It also perpetuates the view of the medical humanities as a narrow area of study largely serving the needs of medicine. Exploring the aesthetic, ethical and cultural importance of contemporary representations of illness across different arts and media, this book intervenes in current debates in medical humanities/medical education by emphasising more critical as opposed to instrumental approaches. Opening up the category of illness narrative to consider forms beyond literature, Illness as Many Narratives includes chapters on photography, artists’ books, performance art, film, theatre, animation and online narratives. The book examines different physical and mental illness experiences in both autobiographical and collaborative/relational narratives and offers new close readings of diverse works by Jo Spence, Sam Taylor-Wood, Martha A. Hall, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Wim Wenders, Lisa Kron and others. Approaching illness and its treatments as a multiplicity and situating them in relation to aesthetics, theory, radical pedagogy, politics and contemporary cultural concerns, Illness as Many Narratives demonstrates how bringing in diverse materials and engaging with multiple perspectives can help the arts, cultural studies and the medical humanities to establish critical conversations and amplify the goals and scope of their respective work.Less
Illness narratives have become a cultural phenomenon in the Western world but their analysis continues to be framed by the context of biomedicine, the doctor-patient encounter and the demands of medical training. This reductive attitude prevents the inclusion of more formally experimental genres, different themes and interdisciplinary methods within the field. It also perpetuates the view of the medical humanities as a narrow area of study largely serving the needs of medicine. Exploring the aesthetic, ethical and cultural importance of contemporary representations of illness across different arts and media, this book intervenes in current debates in medical humanities/medical education by emphasising more critical as opposed to instrumental approaches. Opening up the category of illness narrative to consider forms beyond literature, Illness as Many Narratives includes chapters on photography, artists’ books, performance art, film, theatre, animation and online narratives. The book examines different physical and mental illness experiences in both autobiographical and collaborative/relational narratives and offers new close readings of diverse works by Jo Spence, Sam Taylor-Wood, Martha A. Hall, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Wim Wenders, Lisa Kron and others. Approaching illness and its treatments as a multiplicity and situating them in relation to aesthetics, theory, radical pedagogy, politics and contemporary cultural concerns, Illness as Many Narratives demonstrates how bringing in diverse materials and engaging with multiple perspectives can help the arts, cultural studies and the medical humanities to establish critical conversations and amplify the goals and scope of their respective work.
Frederick H. White
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- January 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780719091643
- eISBN:
- 9781781707449
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719091643.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, World Literature
This chapter introduces the various scientific and popular lines of discourse that influenced and informed Leonid Andreev’s sense of self and his relationship with neurasthenia. Of equal importance ...
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This chapter introduces the various scientific and popular lines of discourse that influenced and informed Leonid Andreev’s sense of self and his relationship with neurasthenia. Of equal importance is the impact that Andreev had as a major contributor to the popular discourse of pathology in the Russian fin de siècle. His illness experience as an acute neurasthenic was informed by numerous medical and popular factors that were ultimately distilled into his literary works, leading to his unprecedented success and popularity. By re-examining Andreev and a nation’s anxiety over its own perceived moral corruption and physical devolution, Andreev once again comes into focus as one of the leading literary voices of his age.Less
This chapter introduces the various scientific and popular lines of discourse that influenced and informed Leonid Andreev’s sense of self and his relationship with neurasthenia. Of equal importance is the impact that Andreev had as a major contributor to the popular discourse of pathology in the Russian fin de siècle. His illness experience as an acute neurasthenic was informed by numerous medical and popular factors that were ultimately distilled into his literary works, leading to his unprecedented success and popularity. By re-examining Andreev and a nation’s anxiety over its own perceived moral corruption and physical devolution, Andreev once again comes into focus as one of the leading literary voices of his age.
Catherine Belling
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199892365
- eISBN:
- 9780199950096
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199892365.003.0019
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
The first chapter of the section on hypochondria as a cultural condition examines the effects of increasing popular access to medical information, especially through the medium of the internet. It ...
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The first chapter of the section on hypochondria as a cultural condition examines the effects of increasing popular access to medical information, especially through the medium of the internet. It considers the accumulation of medical information (in the formal medical literature, in popular reference sites, in advertising, in patient narratives) by hypochondriacal readers and their application of it to themselves as their own quasi-patients, and the implications of this complex kind of health literacy on the doctor-patient relationship.Less
The first chapter of the section on hypochondria as a cultural condition examines the effects of increasing popular access to medical information, especially through the medium of the internet. It considers the accumulation of medical information (in the formal medical literature, in popular reference sites, in advertising, in patient narratives) by hypochondriacal readers and their application of it to themselves as their own quasi-patients, and the implications of this complex kind of health literacy on the doctor-patient relationship.
Frederick H. White
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- January 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780719091643
- eISBN:
- 9781781707449
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719091643.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, World Literature
In June 1904, newspaper Courier ceased to exist after a prolonged period of financial difficulties. This meant that Andreev now had to earn his livelihood solely as a creative writer. The heady times ...
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In June 1904, newspaper Courier ceased to exist after a prolonged period of financial difficulties. This meant that Andreev now had to earn his livelihood solely as a creative writer. The heady times of his initial success gave way to a period of significant political upheaval and personal loss. Andreev’s life was turned upside down by the deaths of both his youngest sister and his wife, while his works began to reflect his own political ruminations, if not vacillations. This chapter concentrates on the ways in which madness interacts with Andreev’s personal and fictional narratives of loss and rebellion. The central focus is the period 1904–08, although many of the sections in this chapter are organized thematically rather than in strict chronological order.Less
In June 1904, newspaper Courier ceased to exist after a prolonged period of financial difficulties. This meant that Andreev now had to earn his livelihood solely as a creative writer. The heady times of his initial success gave way to a period of significant political upheaval and personal loss. Andreev’s life was turned upside down by the deaths of both his youngest sister and his wife, while his works began to reflect his own political ruminations, if not vacillations. This chapter concentrates on the ways in which madness interacts with Andreev’s personal and fictional narratives of loss and rebellion. The central focus is the period 1904–08, although many of the sections in this chapter are organized thematically rather than in strict chronological order.
Yasmin Gunaratnam
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780198713982
- eISBN:
- 9780191782268
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198713982.003.0002
- Subject:
- Palliative Care, Patient Care and End-of-Life Decision Making
This chapter is about narrative approaches to end-of-life wishes. Following an initial discussion of last wishes and plans as affected by cultural differences, pain, and the biochemistry of advanced ...
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This chapter is about narrative approaches to end-of-life wishes. Following an initial discussion of last wishes and plans as affected by cultural differences, pain, and the biochemistry of advanced disease, the chapter covers three main areas. First, it provides a general flavour of the narrative dimensions of illness and care through key themes from the literature on illness narratives. Second, it turns to definitions and distinctions that have been drawn between the terms ‘narrative’ and ‘story’, focusing upon speech act theory as one approach to understanding the complex relationships between what is said, its meaning, and effects. Finally, the chapter draw upon ideas from the palliative care concept of ‘total pain’ to highlight the limits of empathic understanding in situations of suffering and the importance of recognizing how narrative research with dying people can affect the researcher.Less
This chapter is about narrative approaches to end-of-life wishes. Following an initial discussion of last wishes and plans as affected by cultural differences, pain, and the biochemistry of advanced disease, the chapter covers three main areas. First, it provides a general flavour of the narrative dimensions of illness and care through key themes from the literature on illness narratives. Second, it turns to definitions and distinctions that have been drawn between the terms ‘narrative’ and ‘story’, focusing upon speech act theory as one approach to understanding the complex relationships between what is said, its meaning, and effects. Finally, the chapter draw upon ideas from the palliative care concept of ‘total pain’ to highlight the limits of empathic understanding in situations of suffering and the importance of recognizing how narrative research with dying people can affect the researcher.
Robert A. Levine, Sarah E. Levine, Beatrice Schnell-Anzola, Meredith L. Rowe, and Emily Dexter
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195309829
- eISBN:
- 9780199932733
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195309829.003.0046
- Subject:
- Psychology, Developmental Psychology
In this chapter the literacy-mediation hypothesis – that the acquisition of academic literacy influences health literacy and health navigation skills – is tested in the four-country data and the ...
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In this chapter the literacy-mediation hypothesis – that the acquisition of academic literacy influences health literacy and health navigation skills – is tested in the four-country data and the UNICEF Nepal survey. The hypothesis is supported by multivariate analyses, not only in regard to the comprehension of printed health messages but also in the comprehension of radio messages and in producing an intelligible illness narrative – though both of the latter are oral communication tasks. These findings suggest that literacy instruction in school promotes a woman’s health literacy and navigation skills beyond those that involve reading and writing, and point to a more general ability to communicate in bureaucratic settings like schools and clinics and to a tendency to accept the authority of health professionals. The UNICEF Nepal survey shows health knowledge and media exposure to be involved in the causal sequence.Less
In this chapter the literacy-mediation hypothesis – that the acquisition of academic literacy influences health literacy and health navigation skills – is tested in the four-country data and the UNICEF Nepal survey. The hypothesis is supported by multivariate analyses, not only in regard to the comprehension of printed health messages but also in the comprehension of radio messages and in producing an intelligible illness narrative – though both of the latter are oral communication tasks. These findings suggest that literacy instruction in school promotes a woman’s health literacy and navigation skills beyond those that involve reading and writing, and point to a more general ability to communicate in bureaucratic settings like schools and clinics and to a tendency to accept the authority of health professionals. The UNICEF Nepal survey shows health knowledge and media exposure to be involved in the causal sequence.
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226775340
- eISBN:
- 9780226775364
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226775364.003.0023
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
This chapter presents the author's thoughts about memoirs. Writing a memoir is something that many anthropologists may want to pursue at some point in their careers. Memoir is important because as a ...
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This chapter presents the author's thoughts about memoirs. Writing a memoir is something that many anthropologists may want to pursue at some point in their careers. Memoir is important because as a genre, it can extend substantially the readership for things ethnographic. However, the memoir is also a very tricky enterprise. In far too many cases, the author is so focused on recounting, sometimes in excruciating detail, the intricacies of her or his life that the text can become a tedious exercise in solipsism. Illness narratives are among the most popular memoirs. Many of these works have merit, for they connect the experience of the author to thousands of people in relatively similar circumstances. The greatest strength of these memoirs is their penchant for storytelling. Their great weakness is a paucity of insight.Less
This chapter presents the author's thoughts about memoirs. Writing a memoir is something that many anthropologists may want to pursue at some point in their careers. Memoir is important because as a genre, it can extend substantially the readership for things ethnographic. However, the memoir is also a very tricky enterprise. In far too many cases, the author is so focused on recounting, sometimes in excruciating detail, the intricacies of her or his life that the text can become a tedious exercise in solipsism. Illness narratives are among the most popular memoirs. Many of these works have merit, for they connect the experience of the author to thousands of people in relatively similar circumstances. The greatest strength of these memoirs is their penchant for storytelling. Their great weakness is a paucity of insight.
Emily Heavey
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- February 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780190256654
- eISBN:
- 9780190658281
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190256654.003.0008
- Subject:
- Psychology, Social Psychology
The idea that lives and selves are constructed in narrative has become almost universally accepted among narrative analysts. Particular attention has been paid to how narratives construct the self in ...
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The idea that lives and selves are constructed in narrative has become almost universally accepted among narrative analysts. Particular attention has been paid to how narratives construct the self in response to disruptive life events, such as illness. However, the body is often neglected or treated as incidental in such studies, even studies that analyze the narratives of life events that are as thoroughly embodied as illness. This chapter argues that the body itself can be understood as a narrative construction, as well as a physical reality. Indeed, the narrative construction of the body can be an important element of narrative identity construction, and vice versa. Understanding how body biographies are told, and how they construct individuals’ bodies, therefore, has important implications for our understanding of bodies, our understanding of identities and identity construction, and the scope of narrative inquiry.Less
The idea that lives and selves are constructed in narrative has become almost universally accepted among narrative analysts. Particular attention has been paid to how narratives construct the self in response to disruptive life events, such as illness. However, the body is often neglected or treated as incidental in such studies, even studies that analyze the narratives of life events that are as thoroughly embodied as illness. This chapter argues that the body itself can be understood as a narrative construction, as well as a physical reality. Indeed, the narrative construction of the body can be an important element of narrative identity construction, and vice versa. Understanding how body biographies are told, and how they construct individuals’ bodies, therefore, has important implications for our understanding of bodies, our understanding of identities and identity construction, and the scope of narrative inquiry.
Jessica Howell
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- January 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780748692958
- eISBN:
- 9781474400824
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748692958.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
This interdisciplinary study explores both the personal and political significance of climate in the Victorian imagination. It analyses foreboding imagery of miasma, sludge and rot in travel ...
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This interdisciplinary study explores both the personal and political significance of climate in the Victorian imagination. It analyses foreboding imagery of miasma, sludge and rot in travel narratives, speeches, private journals and medical advice tracts. Authors such as Joseph Conrad are placed in dialogue with minority writers such as Mary Seacole and Africanus Horton in order to understand their different approaches to representing white illness abroad. The project also considers postcolonial texts such as Wilson Harris’s Palace of the Peacock to demonstrate that authors continue to ‘write back’ to the legacies of colonialism by reinterpreting imagery of tropical climates.Less
This interdisciplinary study explores both the personal and political significance of climate in the Victorian imagination. It analyses foreboding imagery of miasma, sludge and rot in travel narratives, speeches, private journals and medical advice tracts. Authors such as Joseph Conrad are placed in dialogue with minority writers such as Mary Seacole and Africanus Horton in order to understand their different approaches to representing white illness abroad. The project also considers postcolonial texts such as Wilson Harris’s Palace of the Peacock to demonstrate that authors continue to ‘write back’ to the legacies of colonialism by reinterpreting imagery of tropical climates.
Elisabeth El Refaie
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190678173
- eISBN:
- 9780190678203
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190678173.003.0003
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Psycholinguistics / Neurolinguistics / Cognitive Linguistics
This chapter argues that some genres are more centrally concerned with the body than others, and that each genre exploits the affordances of its modes and media in unique ways. Thus, graphic illness ...
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This chapter argues that some genres are more centrally concerned with the body than others, and that each genre exploits the affordances of its modes and media in unique ways. Thus, graphic illness narratives are characterized not only by their focus on the physical, social, and emotional impacts of disease, but also by their innovative use of the tools and materials of the comics medium, including inherent tensions between words and images, and between sequence and layout. These features impose particular constraints and offer unique opportunities to artists, influencing their choice of metaphors and the shape these metaphors take. For example, in many such works the expected direction of metaphorical transfer from sensorimotor experience to more abstract concepts is reversed, as the diseased body and the nature of visual perception are foregrounded in the artist’s consciousness.Less
This chapter argues that some genres are more centrally concerned with the body than others, and that each genre exploits the affordances of its modes and media in unique ways. Thus, graphic illness narratives are characterized not only by their focus on the physical, social, and emotional impacts of disease, but also by their innovative use of the tools and materials of the comics medium, including inherent tensions between words and images, and between sequence and layout. These features impose particular constraints and offer unique opportunities to artists, influencing their choice of metaphors and the shape these metaphors take. For example, in many such works the expected direction of metaphorical transfer from sensorimotor experience to more abstract concepts is reversed, as the diseased body and the nature of visual perception are foregrounded in the artist’s consciousness.
Ann Oakley
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9781861349378
- eISBN:
- 9781447302360
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781861349378.003.0005
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Theory
‘Illness narratives’ are the stories people tell about the human experience of illness and suffering. Because the people inside sick bodies usually don't experience themselves as sick, a distancing ...
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‘Illness narratives’ are the stories people tell about the human experience of illness and suffering. Because the people inside sick bodies usually don't experience themselves as sick, a distancing occurs: they observe the behaviour of their bodies, and construct accounts of this behaviour. The body's entertainment is about creating reality. The chapter argues that people should be experts on their own bodies because such personal knowledge is especially necessary in chronic illness. Also, the profound iatrogenic effect of the perfect body project is a sickness of its own. This chapter concludes by suggesting that a way of putting illness in its place is to explore it in order to learn more about the human condition.Less
‘Illness narratives’ are the stories people tell about the human experience of illness and suffering. Because the people inside sick bodies usually don't experience themselves as sick, a distancing occurs: they observe the behaviour of their bodies, and construct accounts of this behaviour. The body's entertainment is about creating reality. The chapter argues that people should be experts on their own bodies because such personal knowledge is especially necessary in chronic illness. Also, the profound iatrogenic effect of the perfect body project is a sickness of its own. This chapter concludes by suggesting that a way of putting illness in its place is to explore it in order to learn more about the human condition.
Stella Bolaki
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781474402422
- eISBN:
- 9781474418591
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474402422.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter focuses on a medium that is rarely discussed in relation to the medical humanities by examining the artists’ books of American artist and cancer patient Martha A. Hall. Hall created her ...
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This chapter focuses on a medium that is rarely discussed in relation to the medical humanities by examining the artists’ books of American artist and cancer patient Martha A. Hall. Hall created her books in response to her initial diagnosis of breast cancer in 1989 and the effects of later recurrences until her death in 2003. While art historians and book critics typically describe the handling of artists’ books in terms of a powerful aesthetic experience that emphasises the sensuous pleasures of the book, this chapter shows how the interactive form and content of Hall’s books place a more radical set of demands upon readers. The analysis particularly concentrates on the complex nature of touching and the ethics of responsibility that it generates. It also considers the challenges Hall’s work poses to mainstream breast cancer and the provocations of her artists’ books for medical communities, to whom she attached special importance. The chapter concludes by showing how her work, and artists’ books more broadly, can create spaces for unpredictable and unfinished encounters that can reinvigorate models of empathy in medical education.Less
This chapter focuses on a medium that is rarely discussed in relation to the medical humanities by examining the artists’ books of American artist and cancer patient Martha A. Hall. Hall created her books in response to her initial diagnosis of breast cancer in 1989 and the effects of later recurrences until her death in 2003. While art historians and book critics typically describe the handling of artists’ books in terms of a powerful aesthetic experience that emphasises the sensuous pleasures of the book, this chapter shows how the interactive form and content of Hall’s books place a more radical set of demands upon readers. The analysis particularly concentrates on the complex nature of touching and the ethics of responsibility that it generates. It also considers the challenges Hall’s work poses to mainstream breast cancer and the provocations of her artists’ books for medical communities, to whom she attached special importance. The chapter concludes by showing how her work, and artists’ books more broadly, can create spaces for unpredictable and unfinished encounters that can reinvigorate models of empathy in medical education.
Jarmila Mildorf
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- February 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780190256654
- eISBN:
- 9780190658281
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190256654.003.0009
- Subject:
- Psychology, Social Psychology
This chapter offers a reading of parts of Siri Hustvedt’s autobiographical book, The Shaking Woman, an illness narrative that takes the shape of an intellectual quest for knowledge. It focuses on two ...
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This chapter offers a reading of parts of Siri Hustvedt’s autobiographical book, The Shaking Woman, an illness narrative that takes the shape of an intellectual quest for knowledge. It focuses on two episodes depicting medical consultations and demonstrates how the novelist creatively writes about moments when her self-narration was dismissed or undermined by the medical professionals she encountered. By using distancing strategies which involve the literary techniques of parody, irony, caricature, and metaphor, Hustvedt manages to subject medical discourse to her own (artistic) narrative and to refashion her ill self. On a more abstract level, the paper raises further questions concerning narrative and doctor-patient interaction, as well as narrative and the autobiographical act of verbalizing one’s life story, with emphasis on the literary quality such autobiographical writing may take.Less
This chapter offers a reading of parts of Siri Hustvedt’s autobiographical book, The Shaking Woman, an illness narrative that takes the shape of an intellectual quest for knowledge. It focuses on two episodes depicting medical consultations and demonstrates how the novelist creatively writes about moments when her self-narration was dismissed or undermined by the medical professionals she encountered. By using distancing strategies which involve the literary techniques of parody, irony, caricature, and metaphor, Hustvedt manages to subject medical discourse to her own (artistic) narrative and to refashion her ill self. On a more abstract level, the paper raises further questions concerning narrative and doctor-patient interaction, as well as narrative and the autobiographical act of verbalizing one’s life story, with emphasis on the literary quality such autobiographical writing may take.
Elisabeth El Refaie
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190678173
- eISBN:
- 9780190678203
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190678173.001.0001
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Psycholinguistics / Neurolinguistics / Cognitive Linguistics
This study uses the analysis of visual metaphor in 35 graphic illness narratives—book-length stories about disease in the comics medium—in order to re-examine embodiment in traditional Conceptual ...
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This study uses the analysis of visual metaphor in 35 graphic illness narratives—book-length stories about disease in the comics medium—in order to re-examine embodiment in traditional Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) and propose the more nuanced notion of “dynamic embodiment.” Building on recent strands of research within CMT, and drawing on relevant concepts and findings from other disciplines, including psychology, phenomenology, social semiotics, and media theory, the book develops the argument that the experience of one’s own body is constantly adjusting to changes in one’s individual state of health, sociocultural practices, and the activities in which one is engaged at any given moment, including the modes and media that are being used to communicate. This leads to a more fluid and variable relationship between physicality and metaphor use than many CMT scholars assume. For example, representing the experience of cancer through the graphic illness narrative genre draws attention to the unfathomable processes going on beneath the body’s visible surface, particularly now that digital imaging technologies play such a central role in the diagnosis and treatment of the disease. This may lead to a reversal of conventional conceptualizations of knowing and understanding in terms of seeing, so that vision itself becomes the target of metaphorical representations. A novel classification system of visual metaphor, based on a three-way distinction between pictorial, spatial, and stylistic metaphors, is also proposed.Less
This study uses the analysis of visual metaphor in 35 graphic illness narratives—book-length stories about disease in the comics medium—in order to re-examine embodiment in traditional Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) and propose the more nuanced notion of “dynamic embodiment.” Building on recent strands of research within CMT, and drawing on relevant concepts and findings from other disciplines, including psychology, phenomenology, social semiotics, and media theory, the book develops the argument that the experience of one’s own body is constantly adjusting to changes in one’s individual state of health, sociocultural practices, and the activities in which one is engaged at any given moment, including the modes and media that are being used to communicate. This leads to a more fluid and variable relationship between physicality and metaphor use than many CMT scholars assume. For example, representing the experience of cancer through the graphic illness narrative genre draws attention to the unfathomable processes going on beneath the body’s visible surface, particularly now that digital imaging technologies play such a central role in the diagnosis and treatment of the disease. This may lead to a reversal of conventional conceptualizations of knowing and understanding in terms of seeing, so that vision itself becomes the target of metaphorical representations. A novel classification system of visual metaphor, based on a three-way distinction between pictorial, spatial, and stylistic metaphors, is also proposed.