Risk, Illness Narratives and the Contemporary Novel

In this class we will investigate the representation and thematization of theories of risk in illness narratives and contemporary novels. As the difference between perceived and actual risks seems to magnify, as the benefits of technological innovation are increasingly seen as producing risks of an equal magnitude, as our health and our environment are constantly besieged by narratives of risk, fictional and autobiographical characters and protagonists are more firmly inhabiting these ‘riskscapes’.  How do illness narratives and novels make formal choices about what kinds of risk stories can be told?  How does the generative capacity of risk, and its related terms paranoia and anxiety, motivate plots and metaphors? How does an understanding of risk help us discriminate between hypochondria and other more tangible forms of disease?  We will explore theories of risk, and the production of meaning around risk in works by Don Delilio, Richard Powers, Amitav Ghosh, Susanne Antonetta and Alice Wexler among others.