The Language of Pain: Representing Illness in Literature - The New Yorker Article Summary

                                                 

Hermione Hoby’s article, “Why Is Illness So Hard to Write About?”, revisits Virginia Woolf’s 1926 essay “On Being Ill” to explore why physical suffering remains difficult to represent in literature. Although contemporary writers increasingly describe bodily experiences explicitly, pain often resists language because it overwhelms thought while it lasts and becomes difficult to recall accurately afterward. Writers also tend to transform illness into a metaphor for spiritual revelation, personal growth, or impending death rather than portray its physical realities. Drawing on works by Susan Sontag, Garth Greenwell, Anne Boyer, Albert Camus, and others, Hoby argues that effective illness narratives must remain faithful to the individual body while acknowledging the social, political, and emotional circumstances surrounding suffering. Ultimately, illness may isolate individuals, but it also reveals their dependence on others and the importance of human compassion, care, and the power of writing to communicate experiences that words can scarcely express.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/10/12/why-is-illness-so-hard-to-write-about

Published in the print edition of the October 12, 2026, issue, with the headline “Sick Lit.”