Conquering AIds Through Narrative: Longlife Positive Hiv Stories

Abstract This article considers the significance of illness narratives (or ‘autopathographies’) by people living with life-threatening conditions. It explores the way that illness narratives draw on the structures of ancient myths – especially the quest myth – in order to confer meaning and purpose on suffering. In particular, it analyses selected narratives and body maps created as a form of therapy by a group of Xhosa- speaking HIV-positive women in South Africa, and traces the links between their representations and the quest myth. Understanding their experience of illness in terms of larger, pre-existing cultural scripts is shown to have therapeutic effects, helping the women to retain their identities and regain a sense of order, control and general well-being.