Communicating Pain: Exploring Suffering through Language, Literature and Creative Writing PDF
Preview Communicating Pain: Exploring Suffering through Language, Literature and Creative Writing
‘Communicating Pain is a situated first- person narrative of author Stephanie de Montalk’s quest for ways to manage, live with, and articulate extreme chronic pain, undergirded by the authority of experience as a patient and a nurse. Engag- ing historical and literary others who have trod similar paths, this brilliant cross- genre work interweaves narrative with poetry with history. The book contributes both to the expressive history of disability/chronic illness and also to the cultural analysis of the aesthetics that emerges from distinctive lives lived with pain. It is a wonderful reminder that some of the most notable and innovative intellectual and artistic figures were people with disabilities – and that the history of creativ- ity and the history of living with suffering are inextricably intertwined. Boasting an impressive base of practical and scholarly knowledge, Communicating Pain is a gorgeously written, poetic book that makes reading about pain surprisingly pleasurable.’ Professor Martha Stoddard Holmes, California State University, USA ‘Stephanie de Montalk, writing under a hostile and capricious force, not just about pain but in pain, through pain, has produced a work already recognised by health professionals as ground- breaking and riveting and beautiful. Her book is political, fierce, open, buzzing with ideas about how the body treats the mind and vice versa. It’s an unflinching account, terrifying and bleak in its tracing of nerve pain’s unpredictable torture methods. If the defeating of a narrative pattern –its lack of a progress – is one of chronic pain’s cruel manoeuvres, this book is itself a triumph of patterning. It does two things at the same time: it practices an extraordinary embrace, making us come closer and closer, while at the same time reminding us of the arm’s length of suffering. We feel the pull of the writer’s terrible plight, but we also experience the necessarily harsh cor- rective of de Montalk’s exclusivity, since it is, according to this powerfully argued text, only the fellow sufferer who can connect finally. Everyone else is just a literary tourist. Books like this one remind us we should never get used to anything.’ Professor Damien Wilkins, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand ‘Communicating Pain is a wonderfully powerful, important, and beautiful piece of work which makes a major contribution to the understanding of the subject of pain. The success of the project lies in the fact that Stephanie de Montalk illumi- nates the ugly problem of pain, from so many angles, using so many light sources, with such beauty.’ Professor Michael Hanne, University of Auckland, New Zealand Communicating Pain Combining critical research with memoir, essay, poetry and creative biography, this insightful volume sensitively explores the lived experience of chronic pain. Confronting the language of pain and the paradox of writing about personal pain, Communicating Pain is a personal response to the avoidance, dismissal and isolation experienced by the author after developing intractable pelvic pain in 2003. The volume focuses on pain’s infamous resistance to verbal expression, the sense of exile experienced by sufferers and the under- recognised distinction between acute and chronic pain. In doing so, it creates a platform upon which scholarly, imaginative and emotional quotients round out pain as the sum of physical actualities, mental challenges and psychosocial interactions. Addition- ally, this work creates a dialogue between medicine and literature. Considering the works of writers such as Harriet Martineau, Alphonse Daudet and Ale- ksander Wat, it enables a multi-g enre narrative heightened by poetry, fictional storytelling and life-w riting. Coupled with academic rigour, this compelling monograph constitutes a per- suasive and unique exploration of pain and the communication of suffering. It will appeal to students and researchers interested in fields such as Medical Humanities, Autobiography Studies and Sociology of Health and Illness. Stephanie de Montalk worked as a nurse and documentary film maker before becoming a writer in 1996. She is the author of four collections of poems, a lit- erary novel, a memoir-b iography and the award- winning memoir- study of pain: How Does It Hurt?; adapted from her PhD thesis in Creative Writing. Since an accident in 2003, she has been constrained by pain. Routledge Advances in the Medical Humanities Collaborative Arts- based Research for Social Justice Victoria Foster Person- centred Health Care Balancing the Welfare of Clinicians and Patients Stephen Buetow Digital Storytelling in Health and Social Policy Listening to Marginalized Voices Nicole Matthews and Naomi Sunderland Bodies and Suffering Emotions and Relations of Care Ana Dragojlovic and Alex Broom Thinking with Metaphors in Medicine The State of the Art Alan Bleakley Medicine, Health and Being Human Edited by Lesa Scholl Meaning- making Methods for Coping with Serious Illness Fereshteh Ahmadi and Nader Ahmadi A Visual History of HIV/AIDS Exploring the Face of AIDS Film Archive Edited by Elisabet Björklund and Mariah Larsson Communicating Pain Exploring Suffering through Language, Literature and Creative Writing Stephanie de Montalk www.routledge.com/Routledge-A dvances-in-D isability-Studies/book-s eries/RADS Communicating Pain Exploring Suffering through Language, Literature and Creative Writing Stephanie de Montalk First published 2019 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2019 Stephanie de Montalk The right of Stephanie de Montalk to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-i n-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging- in-Publication Data A catalog record has been requested for this book ISBN: 978-1-138-61105-4 (hbk) ISBN: 978-0-429-46545-1 (ebk) Typeset in Times New Roman by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear For John, Til a’ the seas gang dry Photo credit: Sabrina Hyde Contents Acknowledgements x 1 The shirt of Nessos: an essay on the experience of writing about pain 1 2 Going nursing: an autobiographical prelude 15 3 At the end of the mind, the body: a memoir, 2003–2004 26 4 But at the end of the body, the mind: a memoir, 2004–2009 68 5 The vendor of happiness: an interview with French novelist Alphonse Daudet (1840–1897) 114 6 The consolator: an introduction to English social theorist Harriet Martineau (1802–1876) 131 7 Observatory: a narrative poem set in Harriet Martineau’s sick- room 142 8 An imago: a contemplation of Polish poet and intellectual Aleksander Wat (1900–1967) 156 9 How does it hurt? An epilogue 188 10 White train: a narrative poem 198 Appendix of images 203 Notes 212 Bibliography 236 Index 246
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