Abstract

Danielle Spencer's book, "Metagnosis: Revelatory Narratives of Health and Identity," does many things. It is a work of autotheory, putting Spencer's own embodied narrative in constant conversation with the testimony of others along with a remarkably diverse set of critical and theoretical approaches. In the book, Spencer coins a new term, "metagnosis", which occurs when one is newly diagnosed in adulthood with a lifelong condition. The book explores Spencer's own metagnostic experience involving her eyesight along with chronicling the experiences of others to highlight the ways in which newfound knowledge of a diagnosis can in itself transform us.Born with strabismus—"misaligned eyes," Spencer is practiced at...