Body Language: Illness, Disability, and Life Writing

The Implications of Contractual Terms of Employment for Women and Leadership: An Autoethnographic Study in UK Higher Education

“…This autoethnography meets that criteria since it is written in the form of a personal narrative by the first author of this article, and it seeks to make both theoretical and practical contributions. In line with more general guidelines for authoethnography, this article attempts to present a highly personalized [21], evocative, engaging piece of writing that uses both the conventions of storytelling such as character, scene, and plot development [27], as well as reflections that produce new perspectives [28,29]. The narrative also aims to capture and provide "thick descriptions" of the cultural context [30] (p. 10) and make links to existing literature [31,32].…”

“…The time line was populated with significant experiences and notable people. The researcher reflected on this time line to help focus her writing on epiphanies or significant experiences that she perceived to have impacted significantly on her trajectory and life [28,34,35]. This process enabled her to produce detailed written material about aspects of her personal and work life, explored through the normally private prism of accompanying thoughts and emotions.…”

“Je-sans-moi”: Patients, Pain, and Painlessness in Malraux’s Lazare

“…Thomas Couser emphasizes similar points in his neologism "autopathography" when he claims that "bodily dysfunction may stimulate what I call autopathography-autobiographical narrative of illness or disability-by heightening one's awareness of one's mortality, threatening one's sense of identity, and disrupting the apparent plot of one's life." 13 This emphasis on the experience of an uncontrollable self seems essential, as the concept thereby intrinsically questions the possibility of a self telling its story. Lazare fits within this framework of rupture yet also challenges it, because Malraux's experience of illness ostensibly does not endanger how he, at least intellectually, perceives of the meaning of his life prior to, during, and after illness.…”

Introduction: Embodiment, Identity, and the Patient’s Story

“…10 In this study, Couser takes the idea of the autopathography as a voice against dominant discourses still further by examining the ways in which narratives on breast cancer, HIV/AIDS, paralysis, and deafness engaged with and, in some cases, challenged sexist, homophobic, and ableist points of view.…”