| Summary: | This article presents an analysis of the ways in which illness experience is represented in literary work as a process in defective (a term coined by Iwona Boruszkowska) time and space. Aneta Żukowska’s autopathography Mięcho [Meat] is presented as a case study. In illness narratives hierarchically structured space of the clinic plays an important role, while time is reorganized by the rules imposed within the pathosystem (a term coined by Agnieszka Dauksza). The analysis of the ways of representing time and space in illness narratives allows for illness to be depicted as both embodied and idiosyncratic experience, and a process that is situated within and influenced by the external conditions of medical system. It is a valuable perspective for the literary studies of illness narratives as well as an important context for the medical humanities, a discipline which aims to elevate patients’ voices within the healthcare system.
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