Audre Lorde’s The Cancer Journals: Lorde’s Mastectomy as an Identity
Issue:
Volume 1, Issue 2, July 2016
Pages:
5-12
Received:
21 May 2016
Accepted:
27 June 2016
Published:
18 July 2016
DOI:
10.11648/j.ellc.20160102.11
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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.
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. I...
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