{"id":1867,"date":"2018-01-08T11:59:56","date_gmt":"2018-01-08T11:59:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/translatingpain\/?p=1867"},"modified":"2018-01-08T11:59:56","modified_gmt":"2018-01-08T11:59:56","slug":"before-narrative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/a-bel-abroad\/before-narrative\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Before Narrative: Episodic Reading and Representations of Chronic Pain’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The first publication of the Translating Chronic Pain<\/em> project is now available.<\/p>\n

Sara Wasson, \u2018Before Narrative: Episodic Reading and Representations of Chronic Pain\u2019, Medical Humanities <\/em>43 (5 January 2018): 1-7.<\/a><\/p>\n

Abstract<\/span><\/h2>\n

This article suggests that some illness experience may require a reading practice less concerned with narrative coherence or self-authorship, and more interested in the value of textual fragments, episodes and moments considered outside a narrative framework. Chronic pain can pose multiple challenges to the narrative orientations celebrated in both \u2018survivorship\u2019 discourse and classic medical humanities scholarship. In its recalcitrance to cure, its often mysterious aetiology and its complex blend of somatic, interpersonal and affective elements, representations of chronic pain can require a richer vocabulary of temporality. I draw on contemporary affect theory to augment the available critical vocabulary for the textual representation of protagonists\u2019 temporal orientation within illness experience, identifying a language for the emergent present that resists a narrative form. Beyond identifying narrative \u2018incoherence\u2019, affect discourse gives a way to recognise the strained, equivocal\u00a0labour<\/em>\u00a0of incoherence, of inhabiting a cryptic present moment. Affect theory\u2019s attention to the emergent present may give a way to read incoherent \u2018chaos\u2019 outside from a narrative framework, not only as a dark, formless stage in a personal story. To expand our vocabulary for this position, I offer a term for a particular affective experience of the present amid repeated marginalisation: the temporality of thwarted connection. I illustrate how these concepts can enable an alternative reading stance by offering a brief analysis of Lous Heshusius\u2019s hybrid autobiography and academic study,\u00a0Chronic Pain from the Inside Out<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The first publication of the Translating Chronic Pain project is now available. Sara Wasson, \u2018Before Narrative: Episodic Reading and Representations of Chronic Pain\u2019, Medical Humanities 43 (5 January 2018): 1-7. Abstract This article suggests that some illness experience may require a reading practice less concerned with narrative coherence or self-authorship, and more interested in the… Continue Reading ‘Before Narrative: Episodic Reading and Representations of Chronic Pain’<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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SYMPOSIUM: Representing Pain: Fragments and Narrative","author":"strongs","date":"April 10, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Representing Pain:\u00a0 Fragments and Narrative A symposium at Lancaster University Friday 17 August 2018, 9:00 am -5.30 pm I am delighted to announce a Symposium to be held at Lancaster University on Friday 17 August, exploring the challenges pain poses to traditional narrative representation, and the way it may require\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/a-bel-abroad\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1076,"url":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/a-bel-abroad\/writing-pain-creative-summit-saturday-21st-october-2017\/","url_meta":{"origin":1867,"position":1},"title":"Writing Pain: Creative Summit, Saturday 21st October 2017","author":"strongs","date":"July 5, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"We are delighted to be launching this network at the end of July 2017. The first event is going to be a Creative Summit on Saturday 21 October at Lancaster University. This event will bring together people living with chronic pain, \u00a0representatives of pain charities, medical practitioners, creative writers, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/a-bel-abroad\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1829,"url":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/a-bel-abroad\/free-creative-writing-workshop-manchester-24-february-and-call-for-creative-work\/","url_meta":{"origin":1867,"position":2},"title":"Free Creative Writing workshop (Manchester, 24 February); and Call for Creative Work","author":"strongs","date":"January 5, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"As part of the AHRC-funded project Translating Chronic Pain, we are running a free creative writing workshop\u00a0in Manchester on Saturday 24 February. I am also delighted to invite submissions of\u00a0 short-form creative writing around the experience of chronic pain, i.e.\u00a0short works (5-150 words) of prose or poetry, optionally alongside artwork\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/a-bel-abroad\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3718,"url":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/a-bel-abroad\/partners-in-my-care-by-anonymous\/","url_meta":{"origin":1867,"position":3},"title":"‘Partners In My Care’, by anonymous","author":"strongs","date":"June 24, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"I sit in my place\u2014the patient\u2019s chair\u2014prepared to be a partner in my care. I\u2019ve brought an expanding bible of medical tests and consultant notes, a list of medications and interventions, including what has worked and what hasn\u2019t, and a diary of symptoms I now describe with familiarity. Muscles spasm\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthology"","block_context":{"text":"Anthology","link":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/a-bel-abroad\/category\/anthology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3926,"url":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/a-bel-abroad\/hey-leah-by-socks\/","url_meta":{"origin":1867,"position":4},"title":"‘hey Leah’ by socks","author":"strongs","date":"May 3, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"hey Leah ive been worried about you. theres this site i want you to see, ive been putting poems on there about chronic pain. you dont have to do this alone. \u00a0 by socks England","rel":"","context":"In "Anthology"","block_context":{"text":"Anthology","link":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/a-bel-abroad\/category\/anthology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3901,"url":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/a-bel-abroad\/superheroes-in-pjs-by-grae-salisbury\/","url_meta":{"origin":1867,"position":5},"title":"‘Superheroes in PJs’, by Grae Salisbury","author":"strongs","date":"March 2, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"This is shocking. \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I am not an object and I am not broken but \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 the pain tells me differently. \u00a0 This is chronic. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Why am I not adjusted yet? \u00a0 It comes and goes, it\u2019s all my consciousness \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 or \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 all I want is to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthology"","block_context":{"text":"Anthology","link":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/a-bel-abroad\/category\/anthology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/a-bel-abroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/a-bel-abroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/a-bel-abroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/a-bel-abroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/a-bel-abroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/a-bel-abroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1867\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/a-bel-abroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/a-bel-abroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/a-bel-abroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}