Narrating life, illness and death: Ethics of care and narrative bioethics from Isabel Allende's Paula

Abstract

Purpose/Context. The article presents a hermeneutic and reflexive analysis of Paula, an autobiographical novel published by Isabel Allende in 1994. The purpose is to inquire into the way in which stories are useful in the configuration, individual and collective, of the meaning of life and death, and to identify the elements it contributes towards the construction of an ethics of care and a narrative bioethics, useful for the current context.

Methodology/Approach. The analysis was conducted in three stages: 1) review of documents with a fundamentally philosophical perspective; 2) analytical and interpretative reading of the novel to provide an overview and a strategy for articulating themes with the literature reviewed; and 3) interpretation in light of the debates and conflicts inherent to contemporary bioethics.

Results/Findings. The results show the importance of narrative and stories to give meaning and coherence to one's own life, to critically recount and reconstruct the everyday in contexts of coexistence with illness, as well as to promote reflective processes in the face of limit-situations such as death.

Discussion/Conclusions/Contributions. The conclusions point out to what extent there are in the novel, although in a germinal way, veins for the establishment of an ethics of care and a narrative bioethics.