"Your breasts/sliced off": literary images of breast cancer.

Title

"Your breasts/sliced off": literary images of breast cancer.

Creator

Wear D

Publisher

Women & health

Date

1993
1993

Description

This essay explores how breast cancer and mastectomy are portrayed in twentieth-century North American literature. The purpose in doing so is to examine our understandings of how women in contemporary North American culture may experience this potentially fatal disease and disfigurement-understandings that often are narrowly prescribed by the abstract, universalizing language of medicine. The essay is divided into four sections based on the readings of the selected literature: denial and fear; sadness and pain; shame through others' eyes; and transcendence.

Subject

Adult; Female; Humans; Middle Aged; *Women's Health; *Medicine in Literature; Mastectomy/*psychology; North America; *Poetry as Topic; *Drama; Breast Neoplasms/*psychology/surgery; Denial (Psychology); Stress; Psychological/*etiology

Rights

Article information provided for research and reference use only. All rights are retained by the journal listed under publisher and/or the creator(s).

Pages

81–100

Issue

4

Volume

20

Citation

Wear D, “"Your breasts/sliced off": literary images of breast cancer.,” NEOMED Bibliography Database, accessed November 3, 2024, https://neomed.omeka.net/items/show/4922.