Amidst the rise of fake news and Internet hoaxes, bogus illness accounts are particularly troubling, given their potential to undermine the benefits of online peer-support communities, to erode trust in expert medical knowledge, and to promote ineffective, if not lethal, alternative therapies. In this talk, I will present preliminary results of my project “Illness as Fiction. Textual Afflictions in Print and Online”, which investigates the narrative construction of fake patient identities both in book form and on social media. With the help of illness narratives scholarship, I will question whether these texts constitute an extreme form of pathographical writing and I will illustrate what they can teach us about the relationship between autobiography and fiction.

Dr Maria Vaccarella is Lecturer in Medical Humanities at the University of Bristol. She works on the intersection of literature and medicine, and she is a member of the steering committee of the Centre for Health, Humanities and Science. Her current research explores the genre of illness narratives, with a special focus on non-linear and non-triumphalistic plots. She is also interested in narrative medicine, critical disability studies, narrative bioethics, comparative literature, and graphic storytelling. You can read more about her current project “Illness as Fiction: Textual Afflictions in Print and Online” here.

This event is open to all and free to attend, no booking is required.

Part of the Centre for the Health and Humanities Seminar Series

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