'Celebrating Cancer': Young Women Negotiating the Cultural Politics of Survivorship

Abstract

This thesis begins with a critical observation that over the past decade, Canadians have witnessed an explosion of discussions in the public sphere about cancer and survivorship, including the celebration of cancer survivors. The proliferation of cancer/survivor discourses circulates expectations about how cancer should be taken on and embodied. There is an urgent need to investigate the effects of such discourses on young women's (a) access to state and community resources, (b) constructions of health, risk and wellbeing, and (c) personal accounts of their bodies and illness experiences. Drawing on 17 in-depth interviews with young female cancer survivors, this thesis investigates the effects of dominant cancer/survivor discourses on the social and material contexts of young women's cancer experiences. I argue that young women's cancer narratives are embedded in discourses of exclusion and responsibilization that actively shape and define what it means to be a 'good' survivor/citizen.