Representing Illness and Dying: The Uses of Sociology

Brennan, Michael (2025) Representing Illness and Dying: The Uses of Sociology. In: Death, Dying and Bereavement: New Sociological Perspectives. Routledge, London, pp. 103-116. ISBN 9781032453491

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Abstract

First person narratives (or “pathographies”) by individuals in the throes of terminal illness, usually from cancer, have continued to proliferate in recent years. They have also become widely available and accessible in a variety of forms beyond the traditional printed word—as blogs, video diaries, podcasts and through various social media. This chapter discusses the contemporary tendency for sharing personal experiences of dying; of dying publicly using various media—as “mediated public dying”—in ways that may shape experience itself. A sociological focus is applied in order to raise questions about the function of narrative, the politics of representation, and the potential uses of such first-person narratives—for self, society and the formation of policy around the end-of-life. Recent examples of mediated public dying in the 21st century are woven into the discussion in ways that illustrate key sociological thematics of late modern society—of “life politics” and the reflexive project of the self; as a hinge that links individual biography with social structure and wider historical epoch; and as public sociology that speaks to issues and audiences beyond an immediate academic community of scholars. Such narratives, the chapter argues, can not only be seen as interventions in the public sphere, but as a form of public sociology itself, even when such narratives are not necessarily from sociologists themselves. In such instances, sociologists have a crucial role to play in interpreting such narratives and their utility—for service users and providers in social and clinical care, as well as for self and society more generally.

Keywords
Cancer, Mediated Public Dying, Narrative, Pathography, Public Sociology

Item Type:	Book Section
Faculty / Department:	Faculty of Education and Social Sciences > School of Social Sciences
Depositing User:	Michael Brennan
Date Deposited:	29 Apr 2025 10:20
Last Modified:	29 Apr 2025 10:20
URI:	https://hira.hope.ac.uk/id/eprint/4116

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