This article focuses on letters sent by leprosy patients or their family members applying for place at a leprosy hospital. Written between 1871 and 1911, the letters now form part of the Leprosy Archives in Bergen, and have not been presented, contextualized and analysed before. The article aims to illuminate both the sufferers’ experiences of leprosy and the ways in which they recount those experiences in their letters. The concept of “small stories” (Michael Bamberg and Alexandra Georgakopoulou) serves as an entry point to access the narrative techniques in these autobiographical and biographical documents.
BT - European journal of life writing LA - eng, nor, ger N2 -This article focuses on letters sent by leprosy patients or their family members applying for place at a leprosy hospital. Written between 1871 and 1911, the letters now form part of the Leprosy Archives in Bergen, and have not been presented, contextualized and analysed before. The article aims to illuminate both the sufferers’ experiences of leprosy and the ways in which they recount those experiences in their letters. The concept of “small stories” (Michael Bamberg and Alexandra Georgakopoulou) serves as an entry point to access the narrative techniques in these autobiographical and biographical documents.
PY - 2018 T2 - European journal of life writing TI - “I Face a Dark Future”: Patient Letters from the Leprosy Archives, Bergen. UR - http://ejlw.eu/article/view/232/471 VL - 7 ER -