The Cancer Journals

Abstract

Black lesbian feminist poet and author Audre Lorde reflects on her fight against breast cancer, connecting it to her experience as a Black woman, lesbian, feminist, and writer. Lorde begins by asking why it is so difficult to speak about such personal issues, a challenge she faces directly through writing The Cancer Journals . In providing a day-to-day account of what she went through from the point of biopsy to mastectomy, Lorde reflects on her emotions, her desire to survive and to approach her diagnoses as a warrior and not a victim, and the love and care she received from women in her life while fighting cancer. Lorde’s inclusion of her diary entries allows her to frame her personal experiences within broader feminist analyses of gender, race, disability, power, and identity. For instance, she discusses the pushback she received to her refusal to wear a prosthetic breast as a reflection of the sexism and ableism of the healthcare industry. In doing so, Lorde makes clear the structural and systemic components of what can otherwise seem individual.