Teratologies: A Cultural Study of Cancer (International Library of Sociology)

Stories of cancer are full of monster and marvels; the monstrousness of the disease and the treatments, the marvels of the cures and the saved lives.Still one of the most dreaded diseases to haunt our imaginations, cancer is more than an illness - it is a cultural phenomenon.People who have cancer are bombarded with competing explanations of their conditions: it is genetically inherited; it is environmentally produced; it is the result of their personality.Teratologies - A Cultural Study of Cancer investigates how this disease is perceived, experienced and theorised in contemporary society.It explores changing beliefs about the causes of, and the cures for, cancer in both biomedicine and its increasingly popular alternative counterparts. Analysing conventional and alternative medical accounts, self-help manuals and patients' personal stories, Jackie Stacey takes a critical look at the place of heroes, metaphors, the self and the body in these competing bids to produce the authoritative