Narrating health. Literature and medicine

Abstract

Literature was, is, and will always continue to be a central element for the study of different semiotic representations of health and disease. There are two essential elements for this; first, the fact that activities related to health and disease, even in professional environments, constantly intersect with narrations (sometimes in the shape of reports or notes taken listening to the patient); second is, of course, the fact that getting sick and being healed is sometimes associated to exceptional circumstances that can be suggestive for creation.