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The Limits of Narrative: Provocations for the Medical Humanities

Woods, A.

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Abstract

This paper aims to (re)ignite debate about the role of narrative in the medical humanities. It begins with a critical review of the ways in which narrative has been mobilised by humanities and social science scholars to understand the experience of health and illness. I highlight seven dangers or blind spots in the dominant medical humanities approach to narrative, including the frequently unexamined assumption that all human beings are “naturally narrative.” I then explore this assumption further through an analysis of philosopher Galen Strawson’s influential article “Against Narrativity.” Strawson rejects the descriptive claim that “human beings typically see or live or experience their lives as a narrative” and the normative claim that “a richly Narrative outlook is essential to a well-lived life, to true or full personhood.” His work has been taken up across a range of disciplines but its implications in the context of health and illness have not yet been sufficiently discussed. This article argues that “Against Narrativity” can and should stimulate robust debate within the medical humanities regarding the limits of narrative, and concludes by discussing a range of possibilities for venturing “beyond narrative.”

Citation

Woods, A. (2011). The Limits of Narrative: Provocations for the Medical Humanities. Medical Humanities, 37(2), 73-78. https://doi.org/10.1136/medhum-2011-010045

Journal Article Type Article
Publication Date Dec 1, 2011
Deposit Date Nov 7, 2011
Publicly Available Date Jul 1, 2012
Journal Medical humanities.
Print ISSN 1468-215X
Electronic ISSN 1473-4265
Publisher BMJ Publishing Group
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 37
Issue 2
Pages 73-78
DOI https://doi.org/10.1136/medhum-2011-010045

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Copyright Statement
This article has been accepted for publication in Medical humanities. The definitive copyedited, typeset version Woods, A. (2011) 'The limits of narrative : provocations for the medical humanities.', Medical humanities., 37 (2). pp. 73-78 is available online at: http://mh.bmj.com/content/37/2/73







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