Breast Cancer: A New Aesthetics of the Subject

In this essay, I examine breast cancer dialogues among Caucasian, African American, and Latina women in texts (diaries, journals, poetry, and academic writing) that elicit varying interpretations and interrogations. These texts and new representations (phototherapy, visual art, and performance art) are analyzed to trace affinities in the lived experiences of women and to document the emergence of a new aesthetics of existence. Feminists and nonfeminists enter into a real dialogue, intimate connections, and disagreement while confronting the same predicament. In this coexistence of forces of chaos (breast cancer, treatment, disfigurement) and re-writing, new modes of corporality emerge. I also trace the unequal access to early screening, breast reconstructions, and quality health care that is available for marginalized women who have breast cancer that elucidates the antihumanistic character of neoliberal governmentality.