Representations of Illness in Literary Work

A Study of ‘Niobe’

Abstract

Literature can be understood as a space that reveals much about the way of seeing the world and being in the world at a certain historical moment. It can serve as a parameter, even, for understanding how a society viewed the process of health and disease. In the specific case of this article, the research focused on how a short story authored by Coelho Netto, named “Níobe”, informed about the treatment of people affected by leprosy. To this end, it relied on a short story authored by Coelho Netto, entitled “Niobe.” The research conducted was qualitative, exploratory, and documentary in nature, using articles published in Portuguese available on the CAPES Periodicals Portal, published between the years 2018 and 2022 as a basis for its analysis. The analysis of the short story was done in light of the perspective proposed by Roland Barthes (2013). It is concluded that the narrative shows that individuals suffering from leprosy were socially segregated. This marginalization also extended to the families of the patients. Thus, it is observed that a stigma was created around the disease, whose logic of discursive construction blamed the sick person.