"It Is Not Wit, It Is Truth:" Transcending the Narrative Bounds of Professional and Personal Identity in Life and in Art.
Taking inspiration from the film Wit (2001), adapted from Margaret Edson's (1999) Pulitzer Prize-winning play, this article explores the particularities of witnessing a cinematic cancer narrative juxtaposed with the author's own cancer narrative. The analysis reveals the tenuous line between death and dying, illness and wellness, life and living and the resulting identities shaped in the process of understanding both from a personal and professional lens. By framing these representations of illness experience within the narrative constructions of drama, time, metaphor and morality, the personal stories of intellectual knowledge converging with intimate and embodied knowing are revealed.
Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy, Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry, University of Southern California, 1540 Alcazar Street, CHP - 133, Los Angeles, CA, 90089-9003, USA. mlelliot@usc.edu.
Michelle L
ML
Elliot
D004324:Drama; D006801:Humans; D033262:Narration; D009369:Neoplasms; D012650:Self Disclosure
Cancer; Narrative; Reflexivity; Witnessing