An Exploration of Womens Chronic Ailments in Selected Literary Works

Abstract

Pain as an experiential category is different from other somatic experiences, in that it is heavily dependent not only for its mitigation but also for its avowal on outside perceptual forces. Given pain s highly contingent nature it is reasonable to talk about the experience of pain as a gendered affective register. Even when gender is acknowledged as a contributing factor in women s pain, these conversations are often limited to representations of descriptions of sexual assault, childbirth and, fairly recently menstruation. The experiences of chronic female pain especially those that aren t solely mediated through the genitalia, lack both representation and a theoretical vocabulary to talk about them productively. In engagement with literary representations of women s pain the research hopes to demonstrate that there are distinct experiences of chronic pain heavily dependent on gender identity, that have nothing to do with the genitalia and that on analysis of the same an observable pattern emerges. Additionally, this research endeavour aims to draw attention to the prevalence of Chronic Ailments in women and try and find common and recurring themes across literary narratives to discuss if there is a characteristic way that women go through chronic illnesses. newline