SUMMARY Susan Sontag's book, Illness as Metaphor, has framed our understanding of the relationship between disease metaphors and illness experiences in modern Western society. Her view that metaphors can render diseases socially as well as physically mortifying has influenced a generation of scholars: her conclusion that cancer sufferers are shamed and silenced by metaphors has likewise shaped public perception of neoplastic diseases. Despite the eloquence of Sontag's prose and the force of her convictions, her conclusions are not wholly persuasive. Some scholars have critiqued her faith in the power of science to dispel the myths and metaphors of disease; others have pointed out that it is neither desirable nor possible to strip illness of its symbolic meanings. It has been my purpose to test Sontag's assumptions about the impact of cancer metaphors, to weigh her arguments against the experiences and attitudes embodied in patient correspondence, obituaries and death notices, medical and educational literature, and fiction. Popular and professional reactions to neoplastic diseases in both Canada and the United States during the first half of the twentieth century reveal that, while many North Americans regarded cancer as a dreadful affliction, the disease did not, as Sontag has argued, predictably reduce them to a state of silence or disgrace.
...More
Chapter
Keating, Peter;
Cambrosio, Alberto;
(2005)
The Production of Biomedical Measures: Three Platforms for Quantifying Cancer Pathology
(/isis/citation/CBB000772035/)
Article
Creager, Angela N. H.;
(2015)
Radiation, Cancer, and Mutation in the Atomic Age
(/isis/citation/CBB001552100/)
Article
Read, Jennifer;
Hardy, Susan;
Corones, Anthony;
(2011)
Contested Surveillance: Risk, Safety, and Cervical Screening in Australia
(/isis/citation/CBB001232067/)
Book
Cornwall, Claudia;
(2013)
Catching Cancer: The Quest for Its Viral and Bacterial Causes
(/isis/citation/CBB001213235/)
Article
Thagard, Paul;
(2002)
Curing cancer? Patrick Lee's Path to the Reovirus Treatment
(/isis/citation/CBB000300718/)
Article
MONA BAIE;
(2020)
„The healthiest way of being ill“?: Die Krankheitsmetaphorik von Krebs- und Aids-Erkrankungen in dem Nachrichtenmagazin „Der Spiegel“ 1973–2013
(/isis/citation/CBB215654277/)
Thesis
Bowers, Neil Thomas;
(2006)
A Historical Discourse Analysis of the Cancerous and Non-Cancerous Body in Secondary Biology Textbooks
(/isis/citation/CBB001560997/)
Article
Sharma, Padmanee;
Allison, James P.;
(2012)
Lloyd J. Old (1933--2011)
(/isis/citation/CBB001320473/)
Book
Leopold, Ellen;
(2009)
Under the Radar: Cancer and the Cold War
(/isis/citation/CBB000951826/)
Book
Johach, Eva;
(2008)
Krebszelle und Zellenstaat: Zur medizinischen und politischen Metaphorik in Rudolf Virchows Zellularpathologie
(/isis/citation/CBB000953296/)
Article
Jasen, Patricia;
(2009)
From the “Silent Killer” to the “Whispering Disease”: Ovarian Cancer and the Uses of Metaphor
(/isis/citation/CBB000954556/)
Article
Mona Baie;
(2020)
„The healthiest way of being ill“?
(/isis/citation/CBB606148524/)
Chapter
Ross, Malcom;
Nolan, Robert P.;
(2004)
History of Asbestos Discovery and Use and Asbestos-Related Disease in Context with the Occurrence of Asbestos within Ophiolite Complexes
(/isis/citation/CBB000650926/)
Book
Wapner, Jessica;
(2013)
The Philadelphia Chromosome: A Mutant Gene and the Quest to Cure Cancer at the Genetic Level
(/isis/citation/CBB001213249/)
Chapter
Timmermann, Carsten;
(2012)
Running out of Options: Surgery, Hope and Progress in the Management of Lung Cancer, 1950s to 1990s
(/isis/citation/CBB001214247/)
Thesis
Krueger, Gretchen Marie;
(2003)
“A Cure is Near”: Children, Families, and Cancer in America, 1945--1980
(/isis/citation/CBB001562008/)
Article
Penrose, Beris;
(2014)
Occupational Exposure to Cement Dust: Changing Opinions of a Respiratory Hazard
(/isis/citation/CBB001421867/)
Article
Parascandola, Mark;
(2002)
Uncertain Science and a Failure of Trust: The NIH Radioepidemiologic Tables and Compensation for Radiation-Induced Cancer
(/isis/citation/CBB000301104/)
Book
Bryder, Linda;
(2009)
A History of the “Unfortunate Experiment” at National Women's Hospital
(/isis/citation/CBB001033777/)
Article
Natasa Kustrimovic;
Daniela Gallo;
Andrea De Lerna Barbaro;
Eliana Piantanida;
Lorenzo Mortara;
Maria Laura Tanda;
(2023)
The discovery of TNF-alpha: A historical perspective
(/isis/citation/CBB446223292/)
Be the first to comment!