A Practice of Literary Palliation: Philippe Forest's L'Enfant éternel

Philippe Forest's first autofictional novel, L'Enfant éternel (The eternal child), centers on the terminal illness and eventual death of the author's daughter, Pauline. While scholarly attention has been directed toward the role of the text in caring for the child, this essay addresse...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Literature and medicine 2024, Vol.42 (1), p.174-196
Main Author: McCullough, Jordan Owen
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Children
Clinical decision making
Consciousness
Female
Fiction
Forest, Philippe
Genre
Hospitals
Humans
Illnesses
Literature
Literature, Modern
Medicine in Literature
Novels
Palliative Care
Patients
Pediatrics
Writing
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Philippe Forest's first autofictional novel, L'Enfant éternel (The eternal child), centers on the terminal illness and eventual death of the author's daughter, Pauline. While scholarly attention has been directed toward the role of the text in caring for the child, this essay addresses the absence of care for Pauline's parents and their marginalization throughout her end-of-life hospitalization. Focusing on questions of genre, agency, and legacy, I argue that the text allows for a rewriting of the previous, negative experience of care in a way that incorporates the father into care provision. This corrective rewriting understands literature as palliative in its own right, capable of retaining identity, restoring relationships, and facilitating holistic care that "adds life" to all concerned.
ISSN:0278-9671
1080-6571
1080-6571
DOI:10.1353/lm.2024.a935839