질병서사에 나타난 고통의 언어와 증언의 윤리 - 젊은 여성 질병서사를 중심으로

Abstract

This study set out to examine the reproduction patterns of a sick body and language of pain in young women's illness narratives and investigate the biomedical discourse and social and cultural context forming illness experiences as well as the aspect of ego being reconstructed, ultimately figuring out ethics of narratives as a testimony raised by illness narratives. In young women's illness narratives, the body in which pain is embodied loses the control ability, perceives time as a horizontal and spatial sense, feels shame, and stigmatizes itself. The narrator, however, monopolizes and accepts his or her illness in his or her own way and incorporates his or her illness experiences into his or her life through writing, thus creating a new ego. In this way, illness becomes a loss no longer and offers an opportunity to realize the vulnerability of human beings that are finite and doomed to perish. Young women's illness narratives testify that genderized medical knowledge and gender-discriminating stereotypes had women get mistaken about their illness or incapable of explaining it. Their illness narratives also wish that the world of illness will be recognized as a unique world and reveal their nature as resistant illness narratives to raise a question about a right to illness. The testimony of illness narratives establishes a bond of sympathy with readers, who in turn notice an ethical practice by functioning as a witness to the testimony. The testimony and ethics of narrative raised by the body of embodied pain will contribute to the reinforcement of narrative competence in medical ethics.