English Language, Literature & Culture

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Audre Lorde’s The Cancer Journals: Lorde’s Mastectomy as an Identity

Received: 21 May 2016    Accepted: 27 June 2016    Published: 18 July 2016
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Abstract

Mark Sherry, in “(Post) colonizing Disability,” defines disability differently and reconsiders it as an identity like race, religion, and gender: “it is an identity, with both social and personal dimensions, which may be associated with feelings of community, solidarity, and pride, or conversely, with feelings of difference, exclusion, and shame. It could be an identity that is based on identifying as someone who navigates the world in atypical ways,” [15] such as encountering some physical and attitudinal obstacles. This paper argues that feminist disability theory provides many ways to think about women’s disability and how their disability is considered as an identity and pride rather than something shameful or embarrassing in Audre Lorde’s The Cancer Journals. For example, After Lorde’s breast cancer surgery, she refuses having a breast prosthesis because she considers it as something against her identity and her body. She reflects, after mastectomy, how disability is in itself identity that is associated with her body. Moreover, her novel can be read to gain the experience that rather than accepting the breast prosthesis that makes people change their views in a society towards her and to avoid looking at her strangely, her disability as an identity and pride that makes her accept her temporary situation without having the breast prosthesis. Consequently, Lorde’s refusal for the breast prosthesis and to remain as she is signifies how important is it to keep her real identity in a society even if she faces negative attitudes or negative barriers.

DOI 10.11648/j.ellc.20160102.11
Published in English Language, Literature & Culture (Volume 1, Issue 2, July 2016)
Page(s) 5-12
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Colonialism, Medical Colonialism, Postcolonialism, Disability, Mastectomy, Prosthesis, Feminist Disability, Self-Power, Disability Pride

References
[1] Clare, Eli. "Stolen Bodies, Reclaimed Bodies: Disability and Queerness.” Public Culture 13. 3 (2001): 359-365. Web. 30 Apr. 2016.
[2] Darling, Rosalyn Benjamin. Disability and Identity: Negotiating Self in a Changing Society. Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2013. Print. pp 58.
[3] Davis, Lennard J. "Introduction: Disability, Normality, and Culture." The Disability Studies Reader. Ed. Lennard J. Davis. 4th edition. New York and London: Routledge and Taylor and Francis Group, 2013. Print. pp 1.
[4] Eisenberg, Myron G., Cynthia Griggins, Richards J. Duval, eds. Disabled People as Second- Class Citizens. Vol. 2. New York: Springer Publishing Company, 1982. Print. pp. 4.
[5] Garland‐Thomson, Rosemarie. "Feminist Disability Studies." Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 30. 2 (2005): 1557-1587. Web. 30 Apr. 2016.
[6] Gergen, Kenneth J. “The Deficient Self: Colonization and Conflict.” Psychology’s Territories: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives from Different Disciplines (2007): 149-168. Web. 25 Apr. 2016.
[7] Gergen, Kenneth J. “The Self: Colonization in Psychology and Society.” Psychology’s Territories: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives from Different Disciplines (2007): 149-168. Web. 24 Apr. 2016.
[8] Hammer, Karen. "A Scar is More than a Wound: Rethinking Community and Intimacy through Queer and Disability Theory." Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature 68. 2 (2014): 159-176. Web. 29 Apr. 2016.
[9] Herndl, Diane Price. "Reconstructing the Posthuman Feminist Body: Twenty Years after Audre Lorde’s Cancer Journals." Disability Studies: Enabling the Humanities (2002): 144-55. Web. 26 Apr. 2016.
[10] Jarman, Michelle. “Resisting ‘Good Imperialism’: Reading Disability as Radical Vulnerability.” Atenea 25. 1 (2005): 107- 116. Web. 28 Apr. 2016.
[11] Linton, Simi. Claiming Disability: Knowledge and Identity. New York and London: New York University Press, 1998. Print. pp. 5- 12.
[12] Lorde, Audre. The Cancer Journals. San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books, 1997. Print. pp 11- 149.
[13] McCleery, Iona. “What is ‘Colonial’ about Medieval Colonial Medicine? Iberian Health in Global Context.” Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies 7. 2 (2015): 151-175. Web. 27 Apr. 2016.
[14] Shakespeare, Tom. "The Social Model of Disability." The Disability Studies Reader. Ed. Lennard J. Davis. 4th edition. New York and London: Routledge and Taylor and Francis Group, 2013. Print. pp. 215.
[15] Sherry, Mark. "Postcolonising Disability." Wagadu 4 (2007): 10-22. Web. 25 Apr. 2016.
[16] Washington, Harriet A. Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present. New York: Doubleday, 2006. Print. pp. 147.
[17] Wendell, Susan. The Rejected Body: Feminist Philosophical Reflections on Disability. New York: Routledge, 1996. Print. pp. 23-120.
Author Information
  • Department of English, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, King Khalid University, Mohayil City, Saudi Arabia

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  • APA Style

    Ali Mohammad Alshhre. (2016). Audre Lorde’s The Cancer Journals: Lorde’s Mastectomy as an Identity. English Language, Literature & Culture, 1(2), 5-12. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ellc.20160102.11

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    Ali Mohammad Alshhre. Audre Lorde’s The Cancer Journals: Lorde’s Mastectomy as an Identity. Engl. Lang. Lit. Cult. 2016, 1(2), 5-12. doi: 10.11648/j.ellc.20160102.11

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    AMA Style

    Ali Mohammad Alshhre. Audre Lorde’s The Cancer Journals: Lorde’s Mastectomy as an Identity. Engl Lang Lit Cult. 2016;1(2):5-12. doi: 10.11648/j.ellc.20160102.11

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ellc.20160102.11,
      author = {Ali Mohammad Alshhre},
      title = {Audre Lorde’s The Cancer Journals: Lorde’s Mastectomy as an Identity},
      journal = {English Language, Literature & Culture},
      volume = {1},
      number = {2},
      pages = {5-12},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ellc.20160102.11},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ellc.20160102.11},
      eprint = {https://download.sciencepg.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ellc.20160102.11},
      abstract = {Mark Sherry, in “(Post) colonizing Disability,” defines disability differently and reconsiders it as an identity like race, religion, and gender: “it is an identity, with both social and personal dimensions, which may be associated with feelings of community, solidarity, and pride, or conversely, with feelings of difference, exclusion, and shame. It could be an identity that is based on identifying as someone who navigates the world in atypical ways,” [15] such as encountering some physical and attitudinal obstacles. This paper argues that feminist disability theory provides many ways to think about women’s disability and how their disability is considered as an identity and pride rather than something shameful or embarrassing in Audre Lorde’s The Cancer Journals. For example, After Lorde’s breast cancer surgery, she refuses having a breast prosthesis because she considers it as something against her identity and her body. She reflects, after mastectomy, how disability is in itself identity that is associated with her body. Moreover, her novel can be read to gain the experience that rather than accepting the breast prosthesis that makes people change their views in a society towards her and to avoid looking at her strangely, her disability as an identity and pride that makes her accept her temporary situation without having the breast prosthesis. Consequently, Lorde’s refusal for the breast prosthesis and to remain as she is signifies how important is it to keep her real identity in a society even if she faces negative attitudes or negative barriers.},
     year = {2016}
    }
    

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