Whose Story is it? Narrative Humility in Medicine and Literature

Abstract

I am on a panel. It is at a college, a conference, or a literary festival. It happens on almost every panel I am on; particularly when we are discussing representation and diversity in children’s literature – the importance for young people to see protagonists, families and story lines representing their own identities and their own lives. Someone – usually white, and/or straight, and/or cis-gendered -- raises their hand in the audience and tells us about a story they feel compelled to write, a story they love, a story about a protagonist unlike themselves. “Can I tell this story?” they ask, “Is it alright?”