Stories and Silences: Disclosures and Self in Chronic Illness

Abstract

Stories and silences simultaneously frame and constitute meanings among people who experience disrupted lives and, subsequently, inform the content of much qualitative inquiry. The narrative turn in the social sciences has buttressed this inquiry through renewed attention to research participants' stories and researchers' renditions and interpretations of them (Brody, 1987; Bury, 1982, 2001; Charmaz, 1999a, 1999b; Frank, 1995, 1998, 2001; Hyden, 1997; Kleinman, 1988; Maines, 1993; Richardson, 1990; Riessman, 1993; Robinson, 1990). Considerable scrutiny has been given to how researchers represent their subjects' stories and bring the reader into the written narrative (see, e.g., Clough, 1992; Denzin, 1997, 2000; Fine, Weis, Weseen, & Wong, 2000; Lincoln, 1997; Tedlock, 2000). But do stories encompass all experiences? How do we account for silences?