Strategic Suffering
Strategic Suffering
Illness Narratives as Social Empowerment among Mexican Cancer Patients
This chapter views illness narratives as guides to present and future actions, specifically through the refashioning of social roles in local cultural worlds. It draws on fieldwork with Mexican cancer patients and studies the illness narratives of two Mexican cancer patients who have had surgery where part of their reproductive systems were removed. This chapter connects the strategic construction of illness narratives with the reconstruction of gender roles, a process that effectively transformed suffering into a social asset, and role destruction into a chance for personal empowerment.
Keywords: illness narratives, social roles, Mexican cancer patients, gender roles, reconstruction, suffering, social asset, role destruction, personal empowerment
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