Nigerian Illness Narratives as Tools for Clinical Bibliotherapy

A Case of Two Readers

Abstract

In contemporary times, the intersection of literature and medicine has provided a fertile ground for critical discourse on illness, suffering, and healing. Research in the ?eld of literature and medicine within Nigeria haslargely focused on the critical analysis of  creative works by physician-writers and the portrayal of disease, psychological trauma, and neurosis in creative texts authored by physician-writers, patient-writers, and other creative writers. Little attention has been paid to the contemplation of the power of
stories in engendering holistic healing and their utilization as acomplementary medicine tool in Nigeria, particularly through bibliotherapy. Two Nigerian popular literature texts—Ufuoma Bakporhe's Lettars from an Imbecile, and Yinka Egbokhare's Dazzling Mirage—were purposively selected and subjected to critical analysis. ?ey were then“administered” to patients, to  determine how readers-cum-patients identify with characters in the novels. The readers were purposively selected based on the medical conditions described in the novel: intellectual disability and sickle cell disease. Through the illness narratives, both readers affirmed that they gained insight into the psychological effects of pain and stigma on the characters in the novels. They attested that the novels enabled them to better accept their medical conditions and envision ways to transcend the limitations imposed by their illnesses, just as the protagonists of the narratives did. The readers' emotional connection to the characters'experiences of illness highlights literature's potential as a tool for clinical bibliotherapy. This study submits that further conceptualization of this form of therapy within the ambit of Nigerian literature and the employment of appropriate literary texts for use with Nigerian patients will yield signi?cant bene?ts to literary and medical practice in Nigeria..