Open AccessThe patient as reader
Author(s) -
Katarina Bernhardsson
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
tidsskrift for forskning i sygdom og samfund
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1904-7975
pISSN - 1604-3405
DOI - 10.7146/tfss.v16i31.116966
Subject(s) - narrative , resistance (ecology) , point (geometry) , relation (database) , psychology , aesthetics , sociology , linguistics , literature , history , art , philosophy , computer science , ecology , geometry , mathematics , database , biology
Illness narratives can be said to reclaim the voice of the patient, and while they draw much of their strength from a position of experience and loss, they are also highly mediated and constructed narratives. This article studies, how these textual self-representations are formed in relation to intertexts, and how the authors explicitly use other literary texts and enter into a dialogue with them.
Two pathographies are studied, Anders Paulrud’s Fjärilen i min hjärna (“The Butterfly in my Brain”, 2008) and Agneta Klingspor’s Stängt pga hälsosjäl (“Closed due to health reasons”, 2010, and their specific strategies in incorporating other literary texts: Paulrud through assemblage and community, and Klingspor through resistance and critique, especially of narratives the author feels she is supposed to appreciate. In the end, both authors seem to share a view about literature as potentially helpful and meaningful in conveying experiences and even point to a healing potential in narratives and literature.