The article considers some problems with the pairing of joking and disability, and then questions whether the world of the ill is pseudotheological, as Stronach and Allan quote Kundera saying it is. Aspects of Kundera's argument that Stronach and Allan omit suggest a more complex relation between disability, the body and the presence of the person in the multiple texts that end up being involved: Stronach and Allan's text, autobiographical texts such as Robert Murphy's, and the text of several jokes, including one of my own which frames the article.
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References
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Frank, A. W.
(1995) The Wounded Storyteller. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
2.
Kundera, M.
(1986) The art of the Novel. New York: Grove Press.
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Murphy, R. F.
(1987) The Body Silent. New York: Henry Holt.
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Williams, B.
(1998) Naked Before God: The Return of a Broken Disciple. Harrisburg, PA: Morehouse Publishing.
