Ph.D. course on Narrative Writing and Research
Revised programme 18th of October 2015
Monday 9th of November: 10:00 – 14:30
Theme: Introduction to narrative theory and photography as narrative resource
10.00-12.00. Lecture and workshop by associate professor Cindie Aaen Maagaard, Department
of Language and Communication, University of Southern Denmark:
Sensemaking through stories: Definitions and applications of narrative in research
This lecture will begin with an introduction to how the concept of narrative is defined and applied
within different scholarly approaches. After this overview, focus will turn to possible ways for
participants to use the concept in their own work. Finally, the lecture will raise issues relating to
how visual images may be analyzed narrratively, with a view to the topic of the afternoon session.
Reading list:
 Goyal, R. (2013). Narration in Medicine. In the living handbook of narratology. Eds. P. Hühn
et al. Hamburg University. Online publication.
http://www.lhn.unihamburg.de/article/narration-medicine
 Hyvärinen, M. (2008). Analyzing Narratives and Story-Telling. In The SAGE Handbook of
Social Research Methods. Eds. P. Alasuutari, L. Bickman and J. Brannen. Los Angeles and
London: Sage. 447-461
12.30-14.30. Lecture and workshop by associate professor Nina Nissen, Department of Public
Health, University of Southern Denmark:
Crafting synergies between image and text in explorations of health and illness
This lecture and workshop explores how the use of photographs in social studies of medicine can
enhance and stimulate the issues anthropologists and others investigate, conceptualise and
theorise. Drawing on a study-in-progress that examines men’s everyday healthcare practices in
Denmark, we consider how image, text, and the crafting of synergies between image and text
privilege different voices and produce different stories.
Reading list:
 Pink, S. (2007). Doing Visual Ethnography (2nd edition ed.). London: Sage. Chapter 3
 Rose, G. (2007). Visual Methodologies: An Introduction to the Interpretation of Visual Materials.
London: Sage – Chapter 11
Optional reading (different examples of crafting synergies between images and text):
 Balmer, C., Griffiths, F., & Dunn, J. (2015). A ‘new normal’: Exploring the disruption of a poor
prognostic cancer diagnosis using interviews and participant-produced photographs. Health, 19(5),
451-472
 Elliott, D. (2015). Other images: Ebola and medical humanitarianism in Monrovia. Medicine
Anthropology Theory, 2(2), 102-124
 Radley, A., & Taylor, D. (2003). Images of Recovery: A Photo-Elicitation Study on the Hospital
Ward. Qualitative Health Research, 13(1), 77-99
Tuesday 10th of November: 10:00 -14:00
Theme: Themes of illness in fiction
10.00-11.00. Lecture by professor Anne-Marie Mai, Department for the Study of Culture,
University of Southern Denmark:
Literature and medicine: a presentation of thoughts and ideas behind an anthology of literature
aimed at the teaching of doctors and nurses
The main theme of the anthology is the meeting between people in the health sector. There will
be examples drawn from the works of Peter Seeberg, Djuna Barnes, Jens Blendstrup, Kirsten
Thorup and Anders Bodelsen. The presentation will introduce recent American research on
narrative medicine, which has had an influence on the creation of the anthology.
Group discussions on utilizing fiction as an attempt to clarify the human experience in the
interaction between patient, relatives, doctors and nurses.
Reading list:
 Charon, Rita (2001). Narrative medicine – a model for empathy, reflection, profession and
trust. JAMA (The Journal of the American Medical Association), vol. 286, no 15
 Frank, Arthur W. (2007). Five Dramas of Illness. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine Vol.
50, No. 3. pp 379 – 394
11.15-14.00. Workshop by associate professor Lotte Huniche, Department of Publich Health,
University of Southern Denmark:
How to work narratively during the course of a Ph.D. project in relation to specific knowledge
interests and aims – hands on
Reading list:
 Jakobsen, Merete Demant (2015) Den alvorlige samtale. Sygdomsfortællingens veje og
vildveje. Munksgaard; København
 Henriksen, Nina, Tine Tjørnhøj-Thomsen and Helle Ploug Hansen (2011). Illness, everyday
life and narrative montage: the visual aesthetics of cancer in Sara Bro’s Diary. Health, 15(3)
277-297
 Hurwitz, Brian, (2004). The temporal Construction of medical narratives. In Brian Hurwitz,
Greenhaigh, Trisha, Skultans, Vieda (Eds). Narrative Research in Health and Illness.
Blackwell Publishing; Oxford
Monday 16th November: 10:00-14:00
Theme: Narratives on and of illness
10.00-11.45. Lecture and workshop by associate professor Karen Hvidtfeldt Madsen,
Department for the Study of Culture, University of Southern Denmark:
Autopatografies. Cancer narratives and cultural analysis
The lecture will focus on cancer autopatographies and on the theory of narratives and
autobiographies. Drawing on examples of both published and online material, different rhetorical,
narrative and affective strategies will be discussed as well as which kind of knowledge these
narratives hold, and how it can be decoded and used in research.
Reading list:
 Aronson, J. K. (2000). Autopathography: the patient's tale. BMJ. Vol. 321. Issue 7276. s.
1599–1602. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1119270/
 Hawkins, Anne Hunsaker (1999). Culture and medicine: Pathography: Patient narratives of
illness. Western Journal of Medicine, 171 (2):127
 Couser, G. T. (1997). Recovering Bodies. Illness, Disability, and Life Writing. Madison. The
University of Wisconsin Press
12.15-14.00. Lecture by professor Helle Ploug Hansen, Research Unit of General Practice,
Department of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark:
Female Voices. How a poetic representation came into being
Reading list:
 Glesne, Corrine (1997). That Rare Feeling: Re-presenting Research Through Poetic
Transcription. Qualitative Inquiry, Volume 3 Number 2,pp. 202-221.
 Hansen, Helle Ploug (2012). Kvindestemmer. Liv og kræft, Nyt Nordisk Forlag, Arnold Busck,
København
 Hansen, Helle Ploug (2012). At høre stemmer. Om tilblivelsen af bogen ”Kvindestemmer,
køn og kræft”. Fokus, Nr. 3.
 Richardson, Laurel (1993). Poetics, Dramatics, and Transgressive Validity: The Case of the
Skipped Line. The Sociological Quarterly, Vol. 34, No. 4, pp. 695.
 Shinebourne, Phina (2011). ‘I was Going Around with this Mist in Front of My Eyes’: Poetic
Representation of the Experience of Addiction and Recovery. Int J Ment Health Addiction
(2012) 10:174–184, DOI 10.1007/s11469-011-9313-x.
Tuesday 17th November: 10:00-14:30
Theme: Journalism as narrative health research
Lectures and workshops by Ph.D., senior researcher and journalist Jørgen Jeppesen, Research
Department, The National Rehabilitation Center for Neuromuscular Diseases:
From interview to story: journalistic transformation of transcript
Jørgen Jeppesen will give and introduction to how he studies and practices narrative in the context
of rehabilitation and palliative care. Since 2003, he has been a researcher and journalist at the
National Rehabilitation Center for Neuromuscular Diseases (RehabiliteringsCenter for
Muskelsvind). Prior to that, he worked as a journalist for 12 years in the Danish Neuromuscular
Disorders Patient Association (Muskelsvindfonden). Participants will be engaged in discussions
about journalistic storytelling in research and rehabilitation.
Reading list:
 Jeppesen, J., Rahbek J., Gredal O., Hansen HP. (2015). How narrative journalistic stories can
communicate the individual´s challenges of daily living with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.
The Patient, 8, 41-49. [Including: Appendix A. Examples of transformation of interview data
into dialogue, scene, and digression in a narrative journalistic story]
 Choose texts from the `Suggestions for further reading´ list at the end of this document
Monday 23rd November 10:00-14.30
Theme: Storytelling
Lecture and workshop by professor Nina Lykke, Gender Studies, Linköping University:
Shifting the boundaries between academic and creative writing
With a point of departure in reflections on the relationship between epistemologies,
methodologies and writing strategies, the lecture will challenge traditional understandings of
academic and creative writing as genres which are necessarily to be kept distinct and separate.
Taking examples from the field of intersectional gender studies as well as from critical patienthood
studies, the lecture will discuss how transgression of boundaries between genres can work as
productive research tools or as sociologist Laurel Richardson phrased it: Writing as a method of
enquiry.
The lecture will be followed by a writing workshop, which will give participants the opportunity
to reflect on different genres of writing, based on hands-on examples produced in class.
Reading list:
 Lykke, Nina (2014) (ed.) Writing Academic Texts Differently. Routledge, New York. Chapter
2 and 9.
 Lykke, Nina (2010). Feminist Studies. Routledge, New York. Chapter 10-11.
 Richardson, Laurel (2000). Writing as a method of inquiry. Norman K. Denzin and Yvonne S.
Lincoln. Eds. Handbook of Qualitative Research. London. Sage. 2nd ed: 923-948.
Take away points and brief evaluation by course director Lotte Huniche
Suggestions for further reading:
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Andrews, Molly, Squire, Corinne, Tamboukou, Maria (2008). Doing Narrative Research. Sage, Los
Angeles
Brody, Howard (2003), Stories of Sickness, Oxford University Press, Oxford
Broyard, Anatole (1992), Intoxicated by my Illness. And Other Writings on Life and Death, Fawcett
Columbine, New York
Charon, Rita (2008), Narrative Medicine. Honoring the Stories of Illness, Oxford University Press,
Oxford
Couser, G. T. (1997). Recovering Bodies. Illness, Disability, and Life Writing. Madison. The University
of Wisconsin Press.
Csordas TJ. ed (1994): Embodiment and Experience. Cambridge University Press.
Frank, Arthur W. Frank (1995), The Wounded Storyteller. Body, Illness and Ethics, The University of
Chicago Press, Chicago and London.
Gergen, Kenneth J. (2009), Relational Being. Beyond Self and Community, Oxford University Press
Gergen; Kenneth J., Mary M. Gergen (1988), ’Narrative and the self as relationship’ in Advances in
Experimental Social Psychology, ed. L Berkowitz pp. 17-56, New York Academic Press
Gergen, Kenneth J. and Mary M. Gergen (2011). ‘Narrative tensions. perilous and productive’,
Narrative Inquiry 21:2, John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Hem, E. (2001). ”Med pasientens egen penn. Autopatografien som litterær sjanger”. Tidsskrift for
den Norske Legeforening.Volume 121. Issue 9, s. 1136-7.
http://www.tidsskriftet.no/?seks_id=304651
Jakobsen, Merete Demant (1999), Shamanism. Traditional and Contemporary Approaches to the
Mastery of Spirits and Healing, Berghahn Books, Oxford
Johannesen, Helle (2006), ’Introduction’ in Multiple Medical Realities, Patients and Healers in
Biomedical, Alternative and Traditional Medicine, eds Helle Johannesen and Lazar Imre, Berghahn
Books, Oxford
Kinsella, Elisabeth A. (2006), ’Constructions of self,: ehtical overtones in surprising locations’ in
Frances Rapport and Paul Wainwright eds, The Self in Health and Illness. Patients, Professionals and
Narrative Identity, Radcliffe Publishing, Oxford, Seattle
Kirmayer, Laurence (2000), ’Broken Narratives: Clinical Encounters and the Poetics of Illness
Experience’, eds. Mattingly C. And L. Garro, Narrative and the Cultural Construction of Illness and
Healing, University of California Press, Berkeley
Kleinman, Arthur (1980), Patients and Healers in the Context of Culture, University of California
Press, Berkley
Kleinmann, Arthur (1988), The Illness Narratives. Suffering, healing & the Human Condition, Basic
Books, USA
Mattingly, Cheryl (1998 (2005)), Healing Dramas and Clinical Plots. The Narrative Structure of
Experience, Cambridge University Press
Mattingly, Cheryl (2005), ’Den narrative udvikling i nyere medicinsk antropologi’, i Narrativer,
Tidsskrift for Forskning i Sygdom og Samfund, Foreningen Medicinsk Antropologisk Forum, Aarhus
universitet
Moerman, D. (2002), Meaning, medicine and the ’placebo effect’, Cambridge University Press,
Massachusetts
Rosenthal, Ann M. Ostenfeld (2012), ’Energy healing and the placebo effect. An anthropological
perspective on the placebo effect, Anthropology & Medicine, volume 19, issue 3
Tolstoy, Leo (1960/1886), The Death Of Ivan Ilyich, Penguin Classics, England