ABSTRACT
This second chapter samples the ways in which illness experience is represented in literature, the visual arts and music. In the selected fragments of poetry and prose the quality of illness experience often appears to be virtually inexpressible. The meaning of an illness episode may be represented as a struggle, a transformation, or an encounter with an abyss. Metaphors abound in descriptive writing about illness, and conversely, illness is often a metaphor, as in the spiritual meditations of John Donne. Visual images provide examples of the way stages of illness such as care, convalescence, and death are represented. Music is less often inspired by illness, but Beethoven’s fifteenth quartet includes an epigraph giving thanks for recovery.
