Paper Short Abstract:

Those who return from another another realm of existence on the threshold, like being in a coma or having a near-death-experience, encounter various obstacles when they tell their story. This paper will consider what gets unwritten during the rewriting of narratives of illness and suffering.

Paper Abstract:

The proposed paper will focus on stories told by people who return after being catapulted out of this world by a serious accident or illness. Like the philosopher in Plato's allegory of the cave who sees the sunlight on the surface and is met with disbelief when he talks about his experience with those still tethered in the cave, those who have unusual or even supernatural experiences have a hard time getting people to listen and believe their narrative. This can lead to silence or not telling about the worst or weirdest things. The role of the sympathetic listener, often a doctor, is important for this type of narrative. Sometimes when the experience is too strange to be believable it gets adapted to preconceived notions or literary genre conventions. This raises questions about authenticity. What gets unwritten during the rewriting of narratives of illness and suffering? Is it possible to talk about different degrees of authenticity and literariness in narratives of extraordinary experiences such as illness, coma and near death experience? Can this authenticity be preserved while still making the experience intelligible to other people? These questions will be considered with reference to illness narratives in literature, film, and on the internet, including social media.