Introduction to narrative matters in medical contexts across disciplines

This chapter introduces the collection on Narrative Matters across Disciplines in Medical Contexts and positions the interdisciplinary research subject. The chapter discusses the importance of narrative practices and supports the claim that ‘narrative’ should be given a central position within the medical humanities. The introduction explains the rationale for the chapters by the contributors to the collection and shows how they approach narratives in different medical contexts from different research traditions: literary and cultural studies, linguistics, psychology and medical training.