Writing an Illness Narrative and Negotiating Identity: A Kuwaiti Academic/Author’s Journey

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis essay begins by discussing illness narratives in literature. Given the lack of illness narratives in Arabic literature and Anglophone literature, the author has written a collection of short stories, which are partly a memoir dealing with her own disability. The work is entitled Notes on the Flesh. It deals with illness and disability in Kuwait and the Middle East in general. Using critical theory such as Arthur Frank’s work on storytelling and writing the self and body, this essay interrogates the process of healing, self-writing, and the reception of a work on disability. Writing women’s lives is crucial, and even more so is the writing of disabled female protagonists into the existing literature on women. Only through creative writing is there a sense of reclaiming voice and agency. The author charts her journey through academia, women’s studies, disability studies, and how life writing became an integral part of survival.