NARRATIVE AND MEDICINE 2012

Title of the paper:

“Representations of Illness in Contemporary Short-fiction: Some Portuguese and British Examples”

Abstract: In contemporary fiction one can find various examples of literary texts that deal with the theme of disease and the suffering that in most cases is linked with this condition. Disease and death in literature are often two inseparable subjects.

Through the analysis of three examples of contemporary short fiction my aim is to discuss the different representations of disease in short narratives by both Portuguese and British women writers.

The texts selected are “Cavalos nocturnos” by Teolinda Gersão, “O companheiro sinistro” by Maria Isabel Barreno and Where Three Roads Meet by Salley Vickers. In these narratives all the main characters are portrayed according to the way they deal with different kinds of disease. The construction of various fictional realms illustrates the myriad of possibilities associated with the theme of disease as an object of artistic representation.

Biographical information: Dr Ana Raquel Fernandes obtained her first degree at the Universidade de Lisboa, in Modern Languages and Literatures. She received an MA in Comparative Literature (Universidade de Lisboa, Centro de Estudos Comparatistas, 2004). Her thesis was published in a book entitled: O Pícaro e o Rogue. Sobrevivência e Metamorfose de Daniel Defoe a Julian Barnes (Lisboa: Colibri, 2006). She has recently completed her PhD entitled What about the Rogue? Survival and Metamorphosis in Contemporary British Literature (Universidade de Lisboa, Centro de Estudos Comparatistas, 2008). During her last research years she worked at the Department of Hispanic Studies at the University of Birmingham, U.K. Currently she is a researcher at the ULICES – University of Lisbon Centre for English Studies. She has been awarded a grant by the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, Portugal, to carry out research for her Postdoctoral work on the short story in contemporary British and Portuguese women’s writing. The research project will be carried out in joint collaboration with the Cátedra Gil Vicente in the University of Birmingham. She has also been conferred upon the title of Honorary Research Fellow in the School of Languages, Cultures, Art History and Music, University of Birmingham.