Narrative Now

Episode 10: Talking Wounded Storytelling and Vulnerable Reading with Arthur Frank

Season 1 Episode 10

In this episode we speak to Arthur Frank about his life’s work on narrative. Frank is an Emeritus Professor in Sociology at the University of Calgary, Canada, and has won many accolades for his work on illness narratives and ethics of care. We discuss Frank’s most well-known work The Wounded Storyteller (1995), now a central text in the narrative canon, and why this book became so influential. We also chat about Frank’s new book, King Lear: Shakespeare's Dark Consolations, where he coins the term ‘vulnerable reading’, a useful concept for narrative researchers in challenging times, and hear his views on the future of narrative studies.