Performance as narrative medicine

Abstract

ABSTRACT In what follows, I show how the process of creating, rehearsing, and presenting a performance ethnography allows me, my family, the witnessing audiences, and readers to view performance as a productive metaphor for the lived experience of familial chronic illness. First, I join my work with ongoing scholarly conversations about performance ethnography and narrative medicine. Next, I demonstrate how to document and analyze a performance process using several principles of narrative medicine. Finally, I make a case for performance as narrative medicine as a pedagogical and medicinal practice.