Body Image and Survivors' Identity: An Analysis of Selected Breast Cancer Narratives

Abstract

Medical Humanities offers an interdisciplinary approach towards the arts and their application to medical studies. Breast cancer narratives have a prominent base in this field of study. This paper aims to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the breast cancer narratives. Let Me Get This Off My Chest: A Breast Cancer Survivor Over-Shares by Margaret Lesh and Had I Known: A Memoir of Survival by Joan Lunden in order to gain insight into the effects of body image disfiguration on the psychosocial wellbeing of breast cancer survivors and to trace the social constructs of femininity as a significant cause that jeopardizes their identity as well as quality of life. The paper begins with a chapter introducing the core chapters and provides a brief overview of Medical Humanities as a field of study, as well as Breast cancer narratives. The following chapters analyse how body image disfigurement becomes detrimental to the survivors’ quality of life. Furthermore, this project outlines the role of breast cancer narratives in expanding the scope of awareness about the condition among patients. It examines how these narratives may contradict socially constructed notions of femininity by providing a platform for communication.