The Stigma of Illness - Marginalisation through illness in deh Cancer Jounals by Audre Lorde

Seminar paper from the year 2003 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: good, University of Basel (English Seminar), course: Seminar, language: English, abstract: [...] I knew from the very beginning that this paper would only touch upon some questions and that it would be impossible to investigate the whole field of marginalisation. But to deal with the topic of marginalisation would help me to answer some questions and - what I consider more important - to make me aware of social behavioural structures and attitudes towards illness. Because it is society that determines our perception towards illness and finally creates strong prejudices about some diseases. And in my opinion, this awareness of society's power and influence is worth more than any all-including answer to questions concerning illness and stigma. Furthermore, the topic of stigma and marginalisation allowed me to cover several disciplines, for example the disciplines of sociology, (social) psychology, medicine and anthropology. Thus, I had an insight into different areas and read books of diverse disciplines, not only of medicine. To decide about the book which I was going to analyse was not so simple at the beginning. Nevertheless, with the help of Dr. Franziska Gygax I finally decided to examine Audre Lorde's book The Cancer Journals, since Audre Lorde was marginalised not only because of her breast cancer, but also because of her race and homosexual love. I considered this 'double marginalisation' as an interesting starting point. My paper is structured into two main parts: The first main part is about theoretical concepts to introduce the theory of social roles and illness roles and the concept of bodily form as a social role as well. After that I examined the meaning of stigma and shame of illness and also referred to an example of a stigmatized woman in South India. In the second main part of the paper I analysed important situations of marginalisation in The Cancer Journals by Audre Lorde. Audre Lorde, who tried to work up her experience of having breast cancer and to encourage women with breast cancer as well, is presented in a short biography, since some biographical background of her might be helpful for the analysis. This biography is followed by the book analysis, which is structured by some keywords which exemplify moments of marginalisation in Audre Lorde's life. I would like to finish this introduction with two definitions: The definitions of two important terms which are my guidelines throughout the whole paper and are mentioned in the title as well. I define them with the help of some quotations, but also how I do understand them.