The language and imagery of coma and brain injury : representations in literature, film and media / Matthew Colbeck.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Colbeck, Matthew, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Literature, Modern--20th century--History and criticism.

Literature, Modern.

Coma in literature.

Coma in mass media.

Brain damage in literature.

Brain damage in mass media.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (viii, 216 pages) : illustrations

Place of Publication:

London ; New York : Bloomsbury Academic, 2021.

Summary:

"What occurs within coma? What does the coma patient experience? How does the patient perceive the world outside of coma, if at all? The simple answer to these questions is that we don't know. Yet the sheer volume of literary and media texts would have us believe that we do. This book examines representations of coma and brain injury across a range of texts, exploring common tropes and linguistic devices used to portray this medical condition and which help shape universal mythologies of coma. It looks at how these texts represent, or fail to represent, long-term brain injury, drawing on narratives of coma survivors that have been produced and curated through writing groups that the author has run over the last 7 years. Discussing a diverse range of cultural works, including novels by Irvine Welsh, Stephen King, Tom McCarthy and Douglas Coupland, as well as film and media texts such as The Sopranos, Kill Bill, Coma and The Walking Dead, this study provides an explanation for our fascination with coma. With a proliferation of overly positive stories of survival in the media and in literature, this book explores the potential impact these have upon our own understanding of coma and its victims"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Contextualizing coma and brain injury : a linguistic, cultural and medical history

Coma, trauma and the exilic self

Coma and the katabatic archetype

Selfhood and the post-coma condition

Coma, brain injury and lived experience

Metaphor and narrative prosthesis.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on May 13, 2021).

Other Format:

Print version: Colbeck, Matthew. The language and imagery of coma and brain injury

ISBN:

9781350077812

135007781X

9781350077829

1350077828

9781350077805

1350077801

OCLC:

1236899159

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license