The space between words: on the description of Parkinson’s disease in Jonathan Franzen’s 'The Corrections'

Abstract

Disability or health-related literature has potential to shape public understanding of disability and can also play an important role in medical curricula. However, there appears to be a gap between a health humanities approach which may embrace fictional accounts and a cultural disability studies approach which is deeply sceptical of fiction written by non-disabled authors. This paper seeks to reconcile these perspectives and presents an analysis of the language used by Jonathan Franzen in his description of Parkinson’s disease in the novel The Corrections. We use detailed linguistic analysis, specifically stylistics, to identify the techniques Franzen adopts to represent aspects of impairment and disability. We describe four specific linguistic devices used in the novel: reflector mode, iconicity, body part agency and fragmentation. We show how stylistics offers a unique analytical perspective for understanding representations of disability and impairment. However, we emphasise the need to promote critical and even resistant understandings of such representations and we discuss the potential role of patient/service user input to assess fictional accounts.

Narrative medicine pinpoints loss of autonomy and stigma in Parkinson’s disease

“…Interestingly, in a detailed linguistical analysis of the novel The Corrections , the perception of stigma following a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease was confirmed in words like. Particularly a sense of ‘betrayal and disconnection’ that described the experience by the main protagonist Alfred 31 . Since Gofman’s work, it has become clear that in individuals with Parkinson’s disease, stigma particularly follows from severe motor symptoms 32 , 33 .…”

Disability stylistics: An illustration based on Pew in Stevenson’s Treasure Island

“…My intention is to test and augment approaches as I apply them more rigorously to visual impairment and other disabilities, and to other stereotypes such as the burden or ‘Super Cripple’/superhuman (see Barnes, 1992; Hermeston, 2017: 41–42; Rieser and Mason, 1990: 100, 102–103). I have suggested already that narrative mode will be fruitful in expanding the tools (Hermeston, 2017: 46) and indeed Rutter and Hermeston (2019) have considered the use of reflector mode in representations of Parkinson’s Disease. Issues of modality, the representation of speech and thought, and negation are among many issues that have yet to be addressed.…”

Representing young men’s experience of anorexia nervosa: a French-language case study

“…In her 2011 article 'The Limits of Narrative', Angela Woods identifies what she terms 'seven dangers' of narrative, including a frequent lack of attention to genre, and the difficulty of establishing whether narrative accounts of illness are 'accurate', whether fictional or non-fictional. 20 Indeed, where fiction is analysed in medical humanities contexts, part of the justification for the selection of primary texts often involves its perceived 'accuracy'; 21 this makes sense in contexts where the primary goal of reading narratives is to establish empathy among clinicians or raise awareness of what it is like to have a particular condition, but seems alien to the field of literary studies, in which accuracy is not necessarily a criterion for a successful literary representation, and where comparison of the literary text to real-world phenomena might be considered naïve. Furthermore, as I shall argue below with reference to my case-study texts, accurate depiction of symptoms may not be the only -or even the most beneficial -means of achieving a realistic and empathetic portrayal of the ED patient's experience.…”