Shame, (In)visibility, and Ill Feelings

Alice Hattrick's Ill Feelings (2021) is a "genre-bending" long-form essay; its title's dual meaning underlines the entanglement of symptoms and shame that occur when illness is seen as having no explanation. This paper brings Ill Feelings into dialogue with a spoken account of unexplained illness to illuminate the distinct ways in which it shapes both lives and texts. The shame that occurs for those living with "ill feelings" is characterized by a sense of (in)visibility: by feeling simultaneously seen and unseen. I investigate how diagnostic labels employed in these contexts render suffering and sufferers (in)visible, and illuminate how fusing genres offers Hattrick a particular form of (controlled) visibility. Finally, I consider the implications of this analysis for our broader understanding of shame, and for our approach to literary life writing.