Skip to search
Skip to main content
Catalog
Help
Feedback
Your Account
Library Account
Bookmarks
(
0
)
Search History
Search in
Keyword
Title (keyword)
Author (keyword)
Subject (keyword)
Title starts with
Subject (browse)
Author (browse)
Author (sorted by title)
Call number (browse)
search for
Search
Advanced Search
Bookmarks
(
0
)
Princeton University Library Catalog
Start over
Send
to
SMS
Email
Printer
Bookmark
Recovering bodies : illness, disability, and life writing / G. Thomas Couser ; with a foreword by Nancy Mairs.
Author
Couser, G. Thomas
[Browse]
Format
Book
Language
English
Published/Created
Madison : University of Wisconsin Press, [1997], ©1997.
Description
xvi, 314 pages ; 24 cm.
Availability
Available Online
Ebook Central Perpetual, DDA and Subscription Titles
Copies in the Library
Location
Call Number
Status
Location Service
Notes
ReCAP - Remote Storage
R726.5 .C737 1997
Browse related items
Request
Details
Subject(s)
Sick
—
United States
—
Biography
—
History and criticism
[Browse]
People with disabilities
—
United States
—
Biography
—
History and criticism
[Browse]
Sick
—
United States
—
Psychology
[Browse]
People with disabilities
—
United States
—
Psychology
[Browse]
Autobiography
[Browse]
Biography as a literary form
[Browse]
Series
Wisconsin studies in American autobiography.
[More in this series]
Summary note
"A compelling look at personal narratives of HIV/AIDS, breast cancer paralysis, and deafness, Recovering Bodies examines many forms of life writing - including memoirs, diaries, collaborative narratives, photo documentaries, and essays - to illuminate the ways in which these narratives address the stigma of illness and disability. G. Thomas Couser shows that such books are not primarily records of medical conditions; they are instead a means for individuals to reclaim their bodies (or those of loved ones) from marginalization and impersonal medical discourse, by telling their stories in their own terms." "Couser considers why and under what circumstances individuals choose to write about illness or disability; what role plot plays in such narratives; how closure is achieved; who assumes the prerogative of narration; which conditions are most often represented; and which literary conventions lend themselves to representing particular conditions. By tracing the development of new subgenres of personal narrative in our time, this book explores how explicit consideration of illness and disability has enriched the repertoire of life writing. In addition, Couser's discussion of medical discourse joins the current debate about whether the biomedical model is entirely conducive to humane care for ill and disabled people." "With its sympathetic critique of the testimony of those most affected by these conditions, Recovering Bodies contributes to an understanding of the relations among bodily dysfunction, cultural conventions, and identity in contemporary America."--BOOK JACKET.
Bibliographic references
Includes bibliographical references (p. 299-310) and index.
Contents
Foreword / Nancy Mairs
1. Introduction: Human Conditions - Illness, Disability, and Life Writing
2. Medical Discourse and Subjectivity
3. Self-Reconstruction: Personal Narratives of Breast Cancer
4. HIV/AIDS and Its Stories
5. Crossing (Out) the Border: Autobiography and Physical Disability
6. Signs of Life: Deafness and Personal Narrative
7. Epilogue: The Value of Body Stories
Titles in Wisconsin Studies in American Autobiography.
Show 6 more Contents items
ISBN
0299155609 (alk. paper)
0299155641 (paper : alk. paper)
LCCN
97011952
OCLC
36817070
RCP
C - S
Statement on language in description
Princeton University Library aims to describe library materials in a manner that is respectful to the individuals and communities who create, use, and are represented in the collections we manage.
Read more...
Ask a Question
Suggest a Correction
Report Harmful Language
Supplementary Information
Other versions
Recovering Bodies [electronic resource] : Illness, Disability, and Life Writing
id
99125351054906421
Recovering bodies : illness, disability, and life-writing / G. Thomas Couser.
id
9917629193506421