The Rhetoric of Self-Change: Illness Experience as Narrative

Abstract

A rhetoric formulating the self as a project for change has developed in our century. Within this rhetoric certain events and experiences are understood as occasions for changing the self; illness is a prime example. In most narratives of illness the author makes some claim for self-change, though these claims vary. The paper identifies several types of claims for self-change and then considers the relation of rhetorical structures to personal experience.