Epilog. Diagnoser og skønlitteraturens gnosis

This epilogue situates the special issue within discussions from the health humanities more broadly. It is argued that fiction and non-fiction books about issues of health and illness as well as research on the topic proliferate these years, because there has been a dearth of humanistic and existential inputs under a biomedical paradigm. It is suggested that there are three recurring themes that often characterize research on illness representations in literature: 1) Discussions of a medical and literary language use, 2) discussions of illness experiences as narratives, and 3) discussions of difficulties with transferring bodily experiences into linguistic representation.