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.
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Frank, A.W. Illness and Autobiographical Work: Dialogue as Narrative Destabilization. Qualitative Sociology 23, 135–156 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1005411818318
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1005411818318