In this thesis, I focus on The Cancer Journals and explore how Audre Lorde articulates the chaos followed by breast cancer in her life: what is the nature of the crises? What aspects of her life are largely affected by it? How it unsettles her understanding of time and place, how her daily life, work, relationships, and future plans get affected, and how her self-image and her agency and subjectivity are threatened. Relying on theories of women’s autobiographies, women’s writings, and illness narratives, I explore Lorde’s ways of writing about her body and emotions to regain her sense of self in confrontation with the crisis. I compare Lorde’s feminist breast cancer narrative with the standards promoted by the Pink Ribbon ideology and demonstrate the liberating power of the former. Lorde illustrates how the female body with breast cancer becomes the object of dominant oppressive ideologies and discourses surrounding the disease.
","abstract_html":"<p>In this thesis, I focus on The Cancer Journals and explore how Audre Lorde articulates the chaos followed by breast cancer in her life: what is the nature of the crises? What aspects of her life are largely affected by it? How it unsettles her understanding of time and place, how her daily life, work, relationships, and future plans get affected, and how her self-image and her agency and subjectivity are threatened. Relying on theories of women’s autobiographies, women’s writings, and illness narratives, I explore Lorde’s ways of writing about her body and emotions to regain her sense of self in confrontation with the crisis. I compare Lorde’s feminist breast cancer narrative with the standards promoted by the Pink Ribbon ideology and demonstrate the liberating power of the former. Lorde illustrates how the female body with breast cancer becomes the object of dominant oppressive ideologies and discourses surrounding the disease.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Salehkarimi, Golnaz"],"institution":"The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York","degree_name":"Master of Arts","degree_level":"Master","degree_discipline":"Women's and Gender Studies","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":["Red Washburn"],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":["Dana-Ain Davis"],"year":2025,"date_issued":"2025-06-01T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2025-06-01T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T01:59:38Z","subjects":["Women's Studies","Illness Narratives","Women's Autobiographies","agency","subjectivity"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/6232","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor.advisor","label":"Advisor","values":["Red Washburn"]},{"key":"dc:contributor.committeemember","label":"Committee Member","values":["Dana-Ain Davis"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Salehkarimi, Golnaz"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2025-04-15T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Women's and Gender Studies"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Master"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Arts"]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Women's Studies","Illness Narratives","Women's Autobiographies","agency","subjectivity"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/6232"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["In this thesis, I focus on The Cancer Journals and explore how Audre Lorde articulates the chaos followed by breast cancer in her life: what is the nature of the crises? What aspects of her life are largely affected by it? How it unsettles her understanding of time and place, how her daily life, work, relationships, and future plans get affected, and how her self-image and her agency and subjectivity are threatened. Relying on theories of women’s autobiographies, women’s writings, and illness narratives, I explore Lorde’s ways of writing about her body and emotions to regain her sense of self in confrontation with the crisis. I compare Lorde’s feminist breast cancer narrative with the standards promoted by the Pink Ribbon ideology and demonstrate the liberating power of the former. Lorde illustrates how the female body with breast cancer becomes the object of dominant oppressive ideologies and discourses surrounding the disease.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["The \"Self\" in Crisis: A Study of Audre Lorde's The Cancer Journals"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor.advisor":["Red Washburn"],"dc:contributor.committeemember":["Dana-Ain Davis"],"dc:creator":["Salehkarimi, Golnaz"],"dc:date.available":["2025-04-15T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["In this thesis, I focus on The Cancer Journals and explore how Audre Lorde articulates the chaos followed by breast cancer in her life: what is the nature of the crises? What aspects of her life are largely affected by it? How it unsettles her understanding of time and place, how her daily life, work, relationships, and future plans get affected, and how her self-image and her agency and subjectivity are threatened. Relying on theories of women’s autobiographies, women’s writings, and illness narratives, I explore Lorde’s ways of writing about her body and emotions to regain her sense of self in confrontation with the crisis. I compare Lorde’s feminist breast cancer narrative with the standards promoted by the Pink Ribbon ideology and demonstrate the liberating power of the former. Lorde illustrates how the female body with breast cancer becomes the object of dominant oppressive ideologies and discourses surrounding the disease.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/6232"],"dc:subject":["Women's Studies","Illness Narratives","Women's Autobiographies","agency","subjectivity"],"dc:title":["The \"Self\" in Crisis: A Study of Audre Lorde's The Cancer Journals"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Women's and Gender Studies"],"thesis:degree_level":["Master"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Arts"],"thesis:institution_name":["The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T01:59:38Z"}