The Wounded Storyteller: Body, Illness, and Ethics

233 Pages·1997·9.38 MB·English

by  Arthur W. Frank

d d
~lie
Woun e
Storyteller

ARTHUR W.
FRANK
'Tne
'Wounded
Storyteller
BODY,
ILLNESS,
AND
ETHICS
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CHICAGO PRESS
CHICAGO AND LONDON
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 1995 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. Published 1995
Paperback edition 1997
Printed in the United States of America
19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 7 8 9 10 11 12
ISBN-13: 978-0-226-25993-2
ISBN-I0: 0-226-25993-5
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Frank, Arthur W.
The wounded storyteller: body, illness, and ethics I Arthur W. Frank.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 0-226-25993-5 (paperback)
L Sick-Psychology. 2. Discourse analysis, Narrative.
I. Title.
R726.5.F726 1995
306.4' 61-dc20 95-12989
CIP
i€l The paper used in this publication meets the minimum
requirements of the American National Standard for Information
Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials,
ANSI Z39.48-1992.
To my parents,
Jane and Arthur Frank,
in their fifty-fourth year of marriage.
All they had was mine,
and they are with me alUXlYs.

· . . I had grasped well that there are
situations in life where our body is
our entire self and our fate. I was in
my body and nothing else .... My
body ... was my calamity. My
body ... was my physical and
metaphysical dignity.
Jean Ameryl

Contents
Preface xi
Acknowledgments xv
One When Bodies Need Voices 1
TUX)
The Body's Problem
with Illness 27
Three
Illness as a Call
for Stories 53
Four The Restitution Narrative 75
Five The Chaos Narrative 97
Six The Quest Narrative 115
Seven Testimony 137
Eight
The Wound
as Half Opening 169
Notes 187
Index 209