Raccontare contagio e malattia: riflessioni antropologiche

Literature with its stories, built at the intersection of fantasy, reality and memory, but also other genres of writings of a less public kind, such as autobiographical narratives, can represent spontaneous and useful ethnographic sources for reflecting on the theme of epidemics. On the other hand, narration and its transposition into writing constitute a fundamental human way of giving meaning to experience, as shown by some recurring themes in the literature on epidemics such as the fear of illness and death from contagion, and the impotence of humans and medicine in the face of infection. The story of some healthcare professionals who become patients during the first wave of Covid-19 is the core of this contribution which reflects on the transformative potential of autobiographical narration through writing in anthropological perspective.