The lecture offers an application of the ideas of socio-narratology, as proposed in Dr. Frank’s recent book, Letting Stories Breathe. Sophocles’s last play, Philoctetes, presents a period of crisis for a hero who is less ill than he is disabled. Philoctetes’ confrontation with the two characters who come to “save” him from his suffering makes the play useful as a “companion story” for people who need healing but confront uncertainties about what that actually means.
Arthur W. Frank is professor of sociology at the University of Calgary. He is the author of a memoir of critical illness, At the Will of the Body (1991; new edition 2002); a study of first-person illness narratives, The Wounded Storyteller (1995); a book on care as dialogue, The Renewal of Generosity: Illness, Medicine and How to Live (2004); and most recently, a book on how stories affect our lives, Letting Stories Breathe: A Socio-narratology (2010).
