title: Fragments of illness: The Death of a Beekeeper as a literary case study of cancer.
abstract: The first decisive steps of medicine towards becoming a science in its present shape happen to coincide with "the rise of the novel" in the eighteenth century. Before this well known and in our days still growing scientific specialization of medicine, the connections between literature and medicine were both many and close. By reading and analyzing a contemporary novel, The Death of a Beekeeper by the Swedish author Lars Gustafsson (1978), this article is an attempt to explore to which extent a fictional narrative about a unique case of cancer may illuminate challenges associated with the experience of serious illness. Our claim is that medicine might draw wisdom from literature, its ability to create connections through narrative, to illuminate the complexity of ethical dilemmas, and to intertwine symptoms, life stories, and contexts. We argue that by being in the company of literary narratives and philosophical questions, physicians as well as other health care professionals may acquire clinically relevant skills which help them reach the ethically defined goals of their profession.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Health and Society, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, Forskningsveien 3a, 0317, Oslo, Norway. hilde.bondevik@medisin.uio.no.
authors.forename: Hilde
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7608-7216
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Bondevik
authors.affiliation: Department of Literature, Area Studies and European Languages, Faculty of Humanities, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Knut
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Stene-Johansen
authors.affiliation: Psychiatric Open Care Unit, University Hospital of Örebro, 65182, Karlstad, Sweden.
authors.forename: Rolf
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ahlzén
mesh_terms: D056630:Beekeeping; D006801:Humans; D008093:Literature, Modern; D008513:Medicine in Literature; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology*; D010686:Philosophy, Medical; D013160:Splenic Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology
keywords: Cancer; Illness experience; Literature; Medicine; Phenomenology