Routledge Teratologies: A Cultural Study of Cancer (International Library of Sociology)

Stories of cancer are full of monster and marvels; the monstrousness of the disease and the treatments, the marvels of the cures and the saved lives. Still one of the most dreaded diseases to haunt our imaginations, cancer is more than an illness - it is a cultural phenomenon. People who have cancer are bombarded with competing explanations of their conditions: it is genetically inherited; it is environmentally produced; it is the result of their personality. Teratologies - A Cultural Study of Cancer investigates how this disease is perceived, experienced and theorised in contemporary society. It explores changing beliefs about the causes of, and the cures for, cancer in both biomedicine and its increasingly popular alternative counterparts. Analysing conventional and alternative medical accounts, self-help manuals and patients' personal stories, Jackie Stacey takes a critical look at the place of heroes, metaphors, the self and the body in these competing bids to produce the authoritative definition of the meaning of cancer today. Interspersed with these detailed textual investigations are discussions of broader issues such as the feminist debates about the history of science, the place of consumer culture in health practices and the status of patients and of health professionals in postmodern society. Combining authobiographical narratives with contemporary theoretical debates, the author carves out a specifically feminist analysis of the cultural dimensions of cancer. She brings accounts of her own illness under the critical lens of academic scrutiny and situates these personal stories within a discussion of contemporary cultural change. Review "This book is at once a personal narrative of a woman who faced her own cancerous 'monsters' and a scholarly analysis of philosophy, sociology, and anthropology in light of the various approaches to health care, most specifically, the care of a person with cancer.... "Teratlogies asks us to shake loose of old perceptions and attitudes that are made comforting by our use of metaphor." -"Journal of the American Medical Association ..."readable and informative. [Stacey] has powerful points to make about the ways in which the social understanding of cancer helps to support the status quo, which continues to ensure health care for the rich and brave and death for the rest of us." -"Bay Area Reporter