‘Is shealive?Is she dead?’ Representations of chronic disorders of consciousness in Douglas Coupland'sGirlfriend in a Coma

Abstract

Depictions of coma have come to dominate literary and filmic texts over the last half-century, a phenomenon coinciding with advancements in medical technology that have led to remarkable increases in the survival rates of patients within chronic disorders of consciousness. Authors of coma fiction are preoccupied with the imagined subjective experience of coma, often creating complex, dream-like worlds from which the protagonist must escape if survival is to be achieved. However, such representations appear to conflict with medical case studies and patient narratives that reveal that most often, survivors of coma have no recollection of the coma itself. Providing a close reading D C Girlfriend in a Coma (1998) against the context of medical literature and diagnoses, this article examines how the coma patient is represented, often depicting the realities of a prolonged vegetative state, in contrast with other popular representations of coma. It explores Tzvetan Todorov), using the condition of coma as a metaphor for a postmodern existential crisis, whilst simultaneously employing mimetic techniques that raise important medical, ethical and philosophical questions surrounding the ontological status of the comatose patient. It is argued that coma fiction, even in its misrepresentation of the condition, can help us to engage with and interrogate how we think about chronic disorders of consciousness, thereby providing a valuable insight into our attitudes towards illness and mortality. THE COMA METAPHOR IN LITERATURE: AN INTRODUCTIONThe image of the chronic disorder of consciousness, coma, has pervaded literary and filmic texts over the last fifty years, leading to the production of a genre that I will coma fictionThe genre itself can be split broadly into two categories: interior and exterior coma narratives.Whereas the interior coma narrative focuses upon the imagined subjective experience of the coma patient, exterior coma fiction either represents the patient still within coma and the strains his condition has upon the personal relationships that he has outside of unconsciousness, or upon the survivor, and his reintegration into the world outside of coma. These sub-categories of coma fiction are not necessarily mutually exclusive with authors combining them in certain cases I L J THE STORY OF GIRLFRIEND IN A COMAGirlfriend in a Coma is centred upon the fate of Karen Ann McNeil who, after consuming a concoction of alcohol and Valium one night at a party during the late-1970s, subsequently collapses into coma. As I will discuss later, Coupland assimilates factual details from the real-life case of Karen Quinlan, a casualty of a chronic disorder of consciousness who was very much in the public eye during the 1970s and 1980s. I C , prior to becoming comatose, the fictional Karen reveals to her boyfriend, Richard, a prophetic vision F ed normal but had . She also predicts her own departure, and even her return from will go (p.11, p.28).Eventually, and as predicted, Karen emerges from her seventeen-year coma to...

Reimagining Death: A Posthuman Analysis of Life Support and the Concept of Death in the Intensive Care Unit

“…The first transplant surgery was reported internationally and touted as a success, even though the recipient died 18 The idea of prolonged, hopeless coma and the concept of brain death continue to be confused and romanticized in current day media portrayals. See Colbeck (2016) for a discussion of how fiction surrounding the portrayal of coma can be read as part of a postmodern existential crisis with medicine and technology, and Lewis et al (A. Lewis, Weaver, and Caplan 2017) for an analysis of how brain death assessments represented in popular media perpetuate false ideals about the process.…”