The Experience of Cancer Illness: Spain and Beyond During the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century
- Autores: Fanny Hernández Brotons
- Directores de la Tesis: Javier Moscoso Sarabia (dir. tes.), Fernando Broncano (codir. tes.)
- Lectura: En la Universidad Carlos III de Madrid ( España ) en 2017
- Idioma: español
- Tribunal Calificador de la Tesis: María Pilar León Sanz (presid.), Jon Arrizabalaga Valbuena (secret.), Rui Manuel Pinto Costa (voc.)
- Programa de doctorado: Programa de Doctorado en Humanidades por la Universidad Carlos III de Madrid
- Materias:
- Enlaces
- Tesis en acceso abierto en: e-Archivo
- Resumen
This thesis explores the experience of cancer illness during the second half of the nineteenth century. Whilst the existence of the disease label can be traced back to Ancient Greece, it was not until these decades that the term cancer was redefined, within the medical literature, as a synonym for malignant neoplasms; namely, a group of pathological conditions characterised by the proliferation of abnormal cells, and deemed curable only through an early and thorough operation. From then on, practitioners, statisticians, and the population at large observed a significant increase in its morbidity and mortality rates. Ultimately, at the turn of the century, cancer emerged as a matter of national interest and governmental concern in all Western countries.
Existing scholarly literature on the history of cancer during the period under analysis have usually focused on the views of scientific researchers and medical practitioners. Although this new contribution takes them into account, it concentrates on the recipients of the treatments; that is, on the people who demanded a cure or, at least, some relief for their symptoms. The interest lies in the thoughts, feelings, and behaviour of the patients; but also, more broadly, on sick people’s lives before, asides from, and beyond a consultation with a doctor. It begins with the moment they first noticed an alteration, and continues to the point where their daily routines became significantly altered and the prospect of impending cancer death truncated their life expectations.
Besides assembling fragments of individual stories of illness of both famous and common people, this thesis explores the experience of cancer illness through its cultural objectifications. To put it another way, the research delves into the threads from which cancer narratives were interwoven. In fabric production, the colour scheme and the density of a mesh can be combined in an infinite number of ways, but the varieties of fibres used are limited. Similarly, each experience of cancer considered in full detail was unique, but it also shared collective features. The core of the evidence belongs to the largely unexplored Spanish context. Nevertheless, it also includes complementary insights from other Western European countries.
Overall, the aims of the present work are threefold. Firstly, it defends a multifaceted approach to the ontology of disease, that allows conceiving sick people's thoughts and feelings as a proper space of existence of cancer, as significant and distinct as its scientific representation. Secondly, it stands as a case study in the history of experience, positing that the ways in which people diagnosed with cancer could possibly live through their illness were necessarily grounded in the culture they belonged to. Thirdly, using the lenses of a (not so) distant past, its ultimate goal is to favour a reflection on the continuities and discontinuities with our current experience of cancer, be it as patients, carers, or simply concerned individuals.
