Title

No Less A Man: Reconstructing Identity After Prostate Cancer

Keywords

Discourse analysis; Identity; Narrative; Prostate cancer; Self; Social languages

Abstract

Few diagnoses present as great a challenge to one's life as cancer. Many men each year are confronted with a diagnosis of early stage prostate cancer and find themselves making decisions about treatment in the face of side effects that present often devastating effects, including problems controlling one's urine and an inability to perform sexually. In this paper, we explore the narratives of men who, having chosen and undergone treatment for early stage prostate cancer, are living with the consequences. Faced with what Charmaz calls an 'identity dilemma', how do these men linguistically construct their identities in the face of challenges to their bodily, personal, and social integrity? Drawing upon theories of social languages and Discourses, we examine how men linguistically resolve the identity dilemmas they encounter and in turn construct an identity in response to a question about the quality of their lives in the face of the adverse event of prostate cancer. We present an analysis of the interview narratives of two men and show how they 're-collage' an identity in the face of fundamental changes in their functioning as men. We argue that these men draw upon alternative discourses to construct themselves as whole, competent, and 'no less a man'. © Walter de Gruyter 2007.

Publication Date

5-29-2007

Publication Title

Communication and Medicine

Volume

4

Issue

1

Number of Pages

99-109

Document Type

Review

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1515/CAM.2007.010

Socpus ID

34548283574 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/34548283574

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