Illness and Autobiographical Work: Dialogue as Narrative Destabilization

Author: Frank A.W.

Source: Qualitative Sociology, Volume 23, Number 1, 2000 , pp. 135-156(22)

Publisher: Springer

Abstract:

Illness is an occasion for autobiography, and memoirs of illness present openings to ethical ways of living. This work describes illness memoirs as performative, creating the self they claim as their origin. The self that is claimed is dialogical, and the tension of this dialogue is to include the voices of others without assimilating these voices to one's own. Physician memoirs, a spiritual autobiography, and a web site are presented as examples of dialogical autobiographical work occasioned by illness.

Keywords: autobiography; identity; illness; self

Language: English

Document Type: Regular paper

Affiliations: 1: Department of Sociology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2N 1N4

Publication date: 2000-01-01

• In this: publication
• By this: publisher
• In this Subject: Sociology
• By this author: Frank A.W.

Website © Publishing Technology. Article copyright remains with the publisher, society or author(s) as specified within the article.

• Terms and conditions
• Privacy policy
• Information for advertisers