Narrative

“. . . generic categories can impose restrictive conventions on what is not only literature but is also a means of organizing experience. These conventions are reinforced by the cultural preference for the ‘good patient’ (Buckwalter, 2007). Whereas any exaggeration of illness . . . is viewed as problematically inauthentic or even malingering, people who are ill or disabled are generally rewarded for an exaggeration of health or at least good nature, the cheerful stoicism expected of the ‘good patient’” (Garden, 127).