Article published In:
Narrative InquiryVol. 24:1 (2014) ► pp.1–27
Agency in illness narratives
A pluralistic analysis
In this essay, I argue that structural approaches to narrative articulate identity and agency as internal constructs. As such, these analyses neglect the roles of institutional and social factors. A pluralistic analysis of these illness narratives, such as the one offered in this essay, can help narrative scholars better understand how these forces interact with the individual experiences of people living with illness in supporting and constraining agency.
Keywords: empowerment, oral histories, illness narratives, narrative analysis
References
American life histories
(1998) American life histories: Manuscripts from the federal writers’ project 1936-1940. Retrieved from [URL]
Bamberg, M.G.W
(1997) Positioning between structure and performance. Journal of Narrative and Life History, 7(1-4), 335–342. 
Boschma, G
(2012) Community mental health nursing in Alberta, Canada: An oral history. Nursing History Review, 201, 103–135.
Bury, M
(1982) Chronic illness as biographical disruption. Sociology of Health and Illness, 4(2), 167–181.
(2001) Illness narratives: Fact or fiction? Sociology of Health & Illness, 23(3), 263–285.
Choi, S
(2008) Silencing survivors’ narratives: Why are we again forgetting the No Gun Ri story? Rhetoric and Public Affairs, 11(3), 367–388.
Clandinin, D.J., & Connelly, F.M
(2000) Narrative inquiry: Experience and story in qualitative research. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Cloud, D
(1999) The null persona: Race and the rhetoric of silence in the uprising of ‘34. Rhetoric & Public Affairs, 2(2), 177–209.
Davies, B., & Harré, R
(2002 [1990]) Positioning: The discursive production of selves. In M. Wetherell, S. Taylor & S.J. Yates (Eds.), Discourse, theory and practice: A reader (pp. 261–209). London: Sage.
Day, D., & Kjaerbeck, S
De Fina, A
(2009) Narratives in interview — The case of accounts for an interactional approach to narrative genres. Narrative Inquiry, 19(2), 233–258.
De Fina, A., & Georgakopoulou, A
(2012) Analyzing narrative. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Denzin, N.K
(1989) Interpretative biography. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
Deppermann, A
(2013) How to get a grip on identities-in-interaction: (What) does ‘positioning’ offer more than ‘membership categorization’? Evidence from a mock story. Narrative Inquiry, 23(1), 62–88.
Dickinson, T., Cook, M., Playle, J., & Hallett, C
(2012), ‘Queer’ treatments: giving a voice to former patients who received treatments for their ‘sexual deviations’. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 21(9-10), 1345–1354.
Duffy, J
(2007) Recalling the letter: The uses of oral testimony in historical studies of literacy. Written Communication, 24(1), 84–107.
Egerod, I., Christensen, D., Schwartz-Nielsen, K., & Ågård, A
(2011) Constructing the illness narrative: A grounded theory exploring patients’ and relatives’ use of intensive care diaries. Critical Care Medicine, 39(8), 1922–1928.
Fernald Community Alliance
Frank, A.W
(1995) The wounded storyteller: Body, illness and ethics. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Frontline
Frost, N
(2009) ‘Do you know what I mean?’: The use of a pluralistic narrative analysis approach in the interpretation of an interview. Qualitative Research, 9(1), 9–29.
Garden, R
(2010) Telling stories about illness and disability: The limits and lessons of narrative. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, 53(1), 121–135.
Haidet, P., Kroll, T.L., & Sharf, B.F
(2006) The complexity of patient participation: Lessons learned from patients’ illness narratives. Patient Education and Counseling, 621, 323–329.
Heritage, J
(1998) Conversation analysis and institutional talk: Analyzing distinctive turn taking systems. In S. Cmerjková, J. Hoffmannová, O. Müllerov & J. Svetlá (Eds.), Proceedings of the 6th International Congress of IADA (International Association for Dialog Analysis) (pp. 3–17). Tübingen: Niemeyer.
Herndl, C.G., & Nahrwold, C.A
(2000) Research as social practice: A case study of research on technical and professional communication. Written Communication, 17(2), 258–296.
Hyden, L
(1997) Illness and narrative. Sociology of Health & Illness, 19(1), 48–69.
Jordens, C.F.C., Little, M., Paul, K., & Sayers, E, J
(2001) Life disruption and generic complexity: A social linguistic analysis of narratives of cancer illness. Social Science & Medicine, 531, 1227–1236.
Labov, W
(1982) Speech acts and reactions in personal narrative. In D. Tannen (Ed.), Analyzing discourse: Text and talk (pp. 219–247). Washington DC: Georgetown University Press.
Labov, W., & Waletzky, J
(1967) Narrative analysis: Oral versions of personal experience. In J. Helm (Ed.), Essays on the verbal and visual arts (pp. 12–44). Seattle: University of Washington Press.
Lee, C.J., & Grady M
(2012) Gather ye rosebuds while ye may: A college of nursing history project. Nurse Educator, 37(5), 222–225.
Life Journeys: An Oral History Project for Hospice Patients
(2011) Retrieved from [URL]
Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History
Lucius-Hoene, G., & Deppermann, A
(2000) Narrative identity empiricized: A dialogical and positioning approach to autobiographical research interviews. Narrative Inquiry, 101, 199–222.
Mishler, E.G
(1984) The discourse of medicine: Dialectics of medical interviews. Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing Corporation.
(1995) Models of narrative analysis: A typology. Journal of Narrative and Life History, 5(2), 87–123.
(2005) Patient stories, narratives of resistance and the ethics of humane care: A la recherche du temps perdu. Health: An Interdisciplinary Journal for the Social Study of Health, Illness and Medicine, 9(4), 431–451.
National Diabetes Education Program
Oxford Centre for Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism (OCDEM)
. (2009). Background, working methods and outcomes. Retrieved April 15, 2010, from the Diabetes Stories web site, [URL]
Ricoeur, P
(1990) Times and narrative. (K. McLaughlin, Trans.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Riessman, C.K
(1990) Strategic uses of narrative in the presentation of self and illness. Social Science & Medicine, 30(11), 1195–1200.
(1993) Narrative analysis. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.
(2003) Performing identities in illness narrative: Masculinity and multiple sclerosis. Qualitative Research, 3(1), 5–33.
(2012) Analyzing personal narratives. In J.F. Gubrium & J.A. Holstein (Eds.), Handbook of interview research: Context and method (pp. 695–710). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Robinson, I
(1990) Personal narratives, social careers and medical courses: Analysing life trajectories in autobiographies of people with multiple sclerosis. Social Science & Medicine, 30(11), 1173–1186.
Seale, C
(2003) Methodology versus scholarship? Overcoming the divide in analysing identity narratives of people with cancer. Journal of Language and Politics, 2(2), 280–300.
Sommer, B.W., & Quinlan, M.K
(2002) The oral history manual. Walnut Creek, CA: Alta Mira Press.
The Consumer/Survivor/Ex-patient Oral History Project Four Willard Psychiatric Center Stories
n.d.). Retrieved from [URL]
Thomson, A
(2006) Four paradigm transformations in oral history. The Oral History Review, 34(1), 49–70.
University Archives of Virginia Tech
Waddell, C
(1990) The role of pathos in the decision-making process: A study in the rhetoric of science policy. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 76(4), 381–400.
Williams, G
(1984) The genesis of chronic illness: Narrative reconstruction. Sociology of Health & Illness, 6(2), 175–200.
Cited by
Cited by 8 other publications
Akuoko-Barfi, Charlotte, Tearney McDermott, Henry Parada & Travonne Edwards
2021. “We Were in White Homes as Black Children:” Caribbean Youth’s Stories of Out-of-home Care in Ontario, Canada. Journal of Progressive Human Services 32:3 ► pp. 212 ff. 
Jones, Rodney H.
2021. The wounded leader: The illness narratives of Boris Johnson and Donald Trump. Discourse, Context & Media 41 ► pp. 100499 ff.
Meloncon, Lisa & Erin A. Frost
2015. Special issue introduction: Charting an emerging field. Communication Design Quarterly 3:4 ► pp. 7 ff.
Plage, Stefanie
2020. Cancer survivorship reimagined: A qualitative study on evolving interpretative repertoires of cancer and survivorship using participant‐produced photography. European Journal of Cancer Care 29:6
Ramsay, Guy
2017. Taiwanese Stories of Dementia. Modern China 43:2 ► pp. 217 ff.
Toivonen, Heidi & Marco Caracciolo
Törrönen, Jukka
2022. Relational Agency and Identity Navigation in Life Stories on Addiction: Developing Narrative Tools to Analyze the Interplay Between Multiple Selves. International Journal of Qualitative Methods 21 ► pp. 160940692210783 ff.
Törrönen, Jukka
2023. Analyzing agency and identity navigation in addiction stories by drawing on actor-network theory and narrative positioning analysis. Drugs: Education, Prevention and Policy 30:1 ► pp. 95 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 5 april 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.