A study of literary and cultural representations of illness within the context of maladic discourse

This volume is a collection of studies on the experience of being ill as represented in a diverse range of literary and film works, offered by Polish scholars with an interest in the combination of medical, cultural and social contexts (disease, illness, sickness). The focus is on narrative strategies that condition the idiomatic styles of writing (about) disease. The analyses also cover extra-individual codes for expressing the experience of illness, arising from cultural orders or literary genres. The contributors examine cultural representations of melancholy, depression, Parkinson's disease and other boundary situations (e.g., mourning or COVID-19 pandemic). With its diversity of study approaches, the book inscribes itself in the widely defined Polish maladic discourse criticism.

Autorentext
Monika Ladon, PhD, is a literary scholar with a focus on representation of boundary situations in literature. She is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Polish Studies at the University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland. Ireneusz Gielata, PhD, is a literary historian interested in genealogy of Polish and European modernity as well as connections between literature and medicine. He is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Polish Studies at the University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland.