LINGUIST List 8.188

Fri Feb 7 1997

Qs: Illness, Lang Teaching/Policy, French

Editor for this issue: Ann Dizdar <annlinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Arran Stibbe, The social construction of illness
2. Erica Benson, Req:History of Language Teaching/Policy
3. T Say, French frequency dictionary

Autobiographies, I find, take me into other worlds like no other
literature does. There may be inaccurate reconstructions and
distortions of events, but they show how people think and reason and
experience their lives. Particularly interesting are `pathographies',
detailed first person descriptions of how people are effected by
serious illness, not just on a medical level but also on personal,
emotional and social levels.

My own interest is in tracing the metaphors used in pathography, and,
through the wealth of information provided by the details of the
autobiographies, trying to assess their affect on people's lives.

Given what I see as their potential for illuminating the social
construction of illness I am surprised not to find lots of literature
on pathography. Arthur Frank writes that `There are virtually no
academic studies of nonfiction, first person, published illness
narrative; the sole exception I know is Hawkins (1984)'.

The question is, is Frank right? If anyone has come across either work
on illness narratives in popular non-fiction, or has found some
particularly interesting non-fiction account of illness then it would
be nice to hear from you. I'll send a summary of what I find to
everyone.


Arran Stibbe
(licswarthog.ru.ac.za)


- --------------------------------------------------------
Arran Stibbe TEL: 27 461 318105 (W)
Department of Linguistics FAX: 27 461 25049
Rhodes University
Grahamstown 6140
South Africa
- --------------------------------------------------------

I am looking for resources regarding the history of language teaching
as well as the history of language policy. I would be grateful for
any suggestions and will post a summary to the list.

Thank you,

Erica Benson
bensonzusas.uni-halle.de

Could anyone provide me with a reference for a French frequency
dictionary for a colleague of mine, please.

Tessa Say
saytevessex.ac.uk