| Summary: | This article presents autopathography as a genre in which patients can reclaim their voices to articulate
their experiences of the medical system, drawing on Arthur Frank’s theory in The Wounded
Storyteller. Illness narratives can be understood not only as means of expressing a largely negative
experience by way of monologue, but also as platforms for dialogue between patients and their
caregivers. Such encounters, albeit seemingly impossible under the conditions of contemporary
medical system, have been postulated, among others, by Rita Charon, the founder of narrative
medicine. In the text, autobiographical works of Anatole Broyard and Aneta Żukowska are given
as examples of patients expressing the need for a sustained, mutual relationship between doctors
and their patients. As such, autopathographies can play their part in bringing to life the ideals of
narrative medicine, as well as of what S. L. Jain called “elegiaic politics”.
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