Digital Object Identifier
Cancer is increasingly understood within medical humanities not merely as a biomedical condition but as a lived and interpretive experience. This paper examines Srutimala Duara’s My Journey Through Cancer (2022) to explore how Survivorship is articulated beyond clinical recovery. Drawing on Arthur Frank’s concept of the “Wounded Storyteller” and Broom and Kenny’s Theory of Survivorship, the study argues that survivorship emerges as a multidimensional process shaped by narrative reconstruction, coping practices, and socio-cultural conditions. Through close textual analysis, the paper highlights how Duara constructs meaning through writing, spirituality, and personal belief, while also negotiating the limits of positivity within medical discourse. It further demonstrates how survivorship is shaped by embodied experience, doctor–patient interaction, and financial realities. By focusing on a regional, non-celebrity narrative, the study expands Indian illness narratives and positions survivorship as an ongoing negotiation between body, mind, and society.
Ms. Subohi Tabinda, Dr. Reema Chhabra. “Articulating Survivorship: Illness, Meaning, and Identity in Srutimala Duara’s My Journey Through Cancer.” The Criterion: An International Journal in English, vol. 17, no. 4, August 2026, pp. 798-812. DOI, https://doi.org/10.66376/criterion.v17.n4.49.
Open Access · CC BY 4.0 · Crossref DOI ·
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