Beating Illness Into Shape: Applied Narratology and the Dangers of Storytelling

Interest in narratology from other academic disciplines and professional practices of storytelling has often been limited to what we could call an Aristotelian narrative approach, with its emphasis on coherence and closure. In this paper, we critically assess interdisciplinary applications of narratological theory. We discuss the possibility of an ‘applied narratology’: the transfer of narratological methods and findings to professional practices of narrative (e.g., artists’ practices, education and journalism). Finally, we explore the dangers of storytelling and how these can be addressed by an applied narratology that offers not only tools to improve narrative, but also tools to resist it. As an example, we discuss practice-led artistic research on the value of alternative narrative traditions, informed by the experiences of one of the authors as a carrier of a genetic mutation for Hereditary Diffuse Gastric Cancer.