The Word in the Ward

Pain and trauma narratives are different from other narratives because they are fragments of fears and indescribable pains. Most importantly, they enhance therapeutic improvement of patients who use writing as a means of confronting their pains. Testimonies of traumatic experiences often introduce the sufferers and witnesses of such pain, to the heroic, harrowing and shameful sides of existence. Also because of the increase in stress, trauma and death; and because of the limitations of science and technology in the fight against disease and death, many writers across the globe have used their works of arts to focus on scientific endeavours at arresting illness and trauma, the moral choices in the treatment of sick people and the failure of human compassion that more often than not accompany humankind's increasingly reliance on technological care. It is the hope of this doctoral research into the world literature and healing, THE WORD IN THE WARD, that humankind would evolve a means of better comprehending the language and agony of people suffering from disease as this will help the healing process in no small measure.