A diagnosis is a very short story. When you say “I’ve got the flu” you have told us – among other things - that you’re feeling poorly, that you have all-of-body symptoms, that you might be able to spread the illness with a cough, a sneeze or a dirty tissue. You’ve also told us what you’re not: for instance, that your cough is not COVID, and that you should not be expected to work as usual. It is impossible to separate diagnoses from the stories they tell – and they are also a fruitful source of further tales. Novels, films, and TV shows are told using diagnoses as turning points, crises, or moments of transformation. Stories are told about the process of diagnosis and its consequences. Diagnostic stories can be calls to action, explanations for celebrity or political behaviour, cautionary tales, pleas for legitimisation, attempts at inclusion, but perhaps most importantly, a way of – as sociologist Arthur Frank puts it – forming the self.
In this interactive two-hour event, Professors Annemarie and Thierry Jutel (Te Herenga Waka, Aotearoa / University of Wellington, New Zealand) will discuss stories of diagnosis in film and in graphic memoir. They will explore, along with event participants, how diagnostic pronouncements and the experience of illness take an important role in storytelling through creative responses to illness and medicine, and creative explorations of the self in moments of crises.
This will be a small event for up to 15 attendees, enabling deeper engagement between the speakers and the participants. Refreshments will be provided.