Embodied Wounds: Illness and Personal Trauma in Contemporary Russophone Autofiction
Type
conference paper
Date Issued
2025-09-05
Author(s)
Abstract
The present study explores the representation of personal trauma caused by illness in contemporary Russophone autofiction. Turning to the analysis of intimate, corporeal experiences—specifically, the author's own illness or that of a close loved one - the text moves beyond collective or historical trauma to focus on this central narrative axis. The present study draws on recent autofictional works by authors such as Oksana Vasyakina and Egana Dzhabbarova to examine how illness becomes a site of meaning-making, identity negotiation, and narrative structure. The analysis situates these texts within the broader tradition of testimonial and confessional writing, while attending to the specificity of the post-Soviet cultural context, where illness is often entangled with questions of visibility, gender, memory, and care. A close reading of narrative voice, temporality, and metaphorical language reveals how personal suffering - frequently silenced or medicalized - is reclaimed through literary form as an act of resistance, mourning, and self-definition. The paper's central argument is that Russophone autofiction offers a distinctive perspective on the intersection of the medical and the literary, emphasizing the intricate ways in which bodily vulnerability influences narrative, subjectivity, and authorship in the contemporary Slavic literary landscape.
Language
English (United States)
Event Title
Societies around the Black Sea in the Mirror of Literature, Music, and Arts
Event Location
Sofia, Bulgaria
Event Date
15-16 September 2025