Women, Body, Illness : Space and Identity in the Everyday Lives of Women with Chronic Illness

Description

This provocative and moving work explores concepts of body and space to better understand the daily lives and struggles of women with chronic illness. Moss and Dyck show how such women—coping with associated notions of illness, health, and being female—restructure their physical and social environments through the strategies they choose to accommodate disabling illnesses such as chronic fatigue syndrome, multiple sclerosis, or rheumatoid arthritis. Strategies might include disclosing or concealing illness from employers and friends; seeking or rejecting emotional support through old friends and new contacts; and pursuing or resisting specific diagnoses from the biomedical community. Featuring a wealth of original research and personal stories, Women, Body, Illness tells the tales of chronically ill women forging networks of support, redefining themselves, and challenging what it is to be ill. Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Contents Acknowledgments Prologue: Living with Chronic Illness 1 Setting Out Some Issues 2 Working through Theories of the Body 3 Conceptualizing Chronic Illness with Space 4 Making Sense of Chronic Illness 5 Approaching Analysis and the "Interpretive Act" 6 Destabilization of the Material Body: Onset, Diagnosis, Inscription 7 Limits to the Body: Inscription, Income Issues, Borders 8 Absence of Presence/Presence of Absence: Borders, Identity, Everyday Life 9 Disciplining the Environment through Re-Iearning the Body: Everyday Life, Minutiae, Daily Living 10 Connections Notes Bibliography Index About the Authors