title: Do men's and women's accounts of surviving a stroke conform to Frank's narrative genres?
abstract: We compared the illness narratives of 9 male and 9 female United Kingdom stroke survivors using Frank's typologies of illness narratives. Most respondents presented a single dominant narrative genre ("quest memoir," "restitution," "chaos," or a new "despair" genre); none presented quest manifesto or automythology narratives of social action or self-reinvention. We found no gender differences apparent in which genres respondents presented. Stroke severity and the degree of anticipated or actual recovery largely influenced which genre predominated in individual accounts. Contrary to some sociological understandings of gender and health, gender appeared to be less influential on stroke survivors' illness accounts than aspects of the illness, such as its severity.
authors.affiliation: 1University of Stirling, Stirling, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Emma F
authors.initials: EF
authors.lastname: France
authors.forename: Kate
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hunt
authors.forename: Clare
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Dow
authors.forename: Sally
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wyke
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D033262:Narration; D036301:Qualitative Research; D012737:Sex Factors; D020521:Stroke; D013534:Survival / Q000523:psychology*; D006113:United Kingdom
keywords: gender; illness and disease, chronic; illness and disease, experiences; interviews, unstructured; qualitative analysis; research, qualitative; stroke