Deploying Normality: Cancer Survivor Identity and Authenticity in Ritual-like Practice

ABSTRACT

In scholarship on cancer survivorship, “normality” is discussed as a strategy to restore and maintain continuity of identity for the person with cancer. I interrogate the strategic deployment of “normality” in what I define as ritual-like practices by drawing on 20 narrative interviews and 455 photographs produced by study participants. The findings explore normality as outcome (being normal), practice (doing normality), and ethical standard (aspiring to normality). They indicate how sociocultural scripts such as the cancer survivor identity and authentic selfhood inflect what it means to be a “normal” person with cancer with repercussions for recognition in lived experience.

Video Abstract

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KEYWORDS:

• Australia
• authenticity
• cancer survivor identity
• narrative inquiry
• normality
• participant-produced photography

Acknowledgments

I would like to acknowledge Australian Research Council (DP150100414) Chief Investigators Prof Alex Broom, A/Prof Emma Kirby, and Dr Katie Kenny, as well as the clinical collaborators A/Profs Zarnie Lwin and David Wyld at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital. I thank Prof John Oliffe for support with the visual methodology. Further, I thank all participants of this study for telling their stories.

Notes

1. The exception is William who asked not to be recorded. I took notes during the interview. Where William is quoted verbatim, I read the note to him for confirmation during the interview.

2. Neuroendocrine tumors are a type of cancer with very low incidence and vastly diverse illness experiences. Due to their slow-growing nature they are usually detected after they have already metastasized. Treatment approaches include intermittent surgical resection, interventions aimed at slowing tumor growth, symptom management, and constant clinical monitoring.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Australian Research Council under Discovery Grant [DP150100414]; an RTP scholarship, and a Life Course Centre Fellowship.

Notes on contributors

Stefanie Plage

Stefanie Plage, PhD is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Institute for Social Science Research, and a fellow at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over the Life Course. Her research explores the intersections of culture and experience in health and illness.