title: "I am living in my own corpse"--the experience of tuberculosis in poems by A B Simic.
abstract: This paper focuses on seven poems dealing with various aspects of his experience of tuberculosis and uncovers different shades of poetic self within his verses: the notions of self transforming from a helpless child to a ghostly, transparent creature in the secluded world of a hospital ward, and to decaying flesh and "living in a cadaver" are pinpointed. Poetry as creation is the opposite of physical demise; in poetry Šimić finds escape not from the inevitable end, but from suffering. These poems are not confessions of a sick young man; they are relevant works of art touching readers' sensitivity and imagination. They may be relevant for medical professionals in enabling them to view disease-in this case tuberculosis-in a wider context and to be open to the many and different ways in which the experience of illness can be expressed.
authors.affiliation: Old Church Slavonic Institute, Zagreb, Croatia.
authors.forename: M-A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Dürrigl
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Fatovic-Ferencic