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Summary of, "Michail Bakhtin’s theory on Polyphony and Narrative studies in Medical Sociology"

Mitzub'ixi Quq Chi'j

Mi objeto de este tesis es para rescatar los pedazos numerosos de las narrativas sobre las experiencias de ser enfermos/enfermas, los que se hacen en todo los tiempos y los días, y los que se hacen aparentemente de ser olvidado, no por de notar y inscribir sino por de recordar mnemónicamente como metodología humanística.

Resumen

“I will be giving the educational presentation in the conference upon a request by the President.”

“Your educational presentation? Are you kidding? I know you have some contributions in the field of medical sociology and its neighboring discipline (medical anthropology), but I’ve never heard you’ve been working on the research theme that you make your life to, nor you have prominent academic accomplishments in particular, because you are so eclectic? I would rather suspect you send him a bribe or you scare him to push the envelope as often you do successfully?”

“Your doubt is not surprising! But in the past I gave the presentation titled Medical Sociology of Antonovsky’s Theory and I also have been involved in organizing some round-tables for our academic association, such as Illness Narratives: Bridging between Philosophy and Anthropology/Sociology, and Health as a Translational Act: A New Interpretation on Medical Act. It is true my discussions are often too complicated for students, and even for colleague scholars, and I have a bad name for abstruse lectures of which conclusions aren’t always clear for everyone, I admit.”

 “Exactly! Exactly! You are lacking of the ability of being patient enough to persuade others.”

“But, after the ten-years-and-over commitment to the interactive classes for graduate students, I am gaining positive feedback from the participant students. They just say, ‘Your class is great’.”

“Is there any relevance between interactive classes and this educational lecture you are going to give?”

“Very much indeed! Other than the authentic sociology, inter-personal communication studies, clinical psychology, behavioral science, etc. The theories and methods in all of these popular disciplines are adapted or diverted to the medical and health care settings in a cycle of several years (one exception is the narrative tide that has been prosperous for these 20 years)?”

“The situation averts you from Grounded (but Grand?) Theory?”

“No, it’s not the Grounded Theory followers. It's the tide driven by the practical turn of research, that is, ‘be close’ to the medical practice, which represent the current stream of this academic association.”

“In that sense, ‘contestation’ might be a counter-action that attempts to convert researchers to the patients or the people who face medical problems?”

“Could be ?!”

“And, what are you going to speak?”

“To say frankly, it’s, like, a meta-narrative analysis of illness and healing spoken by medical sociologists (fellows?).”

“The word ‘meta’ implies the narratives on the ‘narratives on illness’ that is equal to the discourse of sociologists?”

“That's right! I mean, at the present time, these narratives and discourses makes a polyphonic situation as whole!”

“Now I understand a bit, that cross-cuts with Bakhtin’s concept of Polyphony. But, someone has already done the similar things as discourse analysis or semiotic studies of narratives? Then, your meta-narrative analysis, that you name, would be a kind of ‘back-to-basic’ departing from the practical turn as you said earlier?”

“That’s one possibility. But, keep calm and think. The biomedicine practitioners have proclaimed to advocate the practical development for the interests of patients, since the birth of the science they are based on. However, the criticism on medicine has never ended, that I presume an evidence of betrayal.”

“You’re right. And vice versa. Some scholars and their scholastic works apparently seem indifferent from the real-world situation, but it could not be true they are, as they seem.”

“Maurice Blanchot says: Le récit n'est pas la relation de l'événement, mais cet événement même (The narrative is not the relation of the event, but the event itself).”

“Voilà, voilà! Let's see how you do it!”

Redirect to "Mikhail Bakhtin’s Concept of Polyphony and Studies of Illness Narrative: An anthropologist’s Note."

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