Marni's Presentation

I’ve always thought Marni’s question to be a very interesting one, and I was interested to see the way in which she ultimately decided to operationalize it by looking at cancer narratives. I do think that shared experience does constitute a type of prior text, especially because often shared experience often creates a distinct text within itself—I’m reminded of Tovares’s recent work on athlete narratives, when certain phrases become the norm for discussing things, like in “mile 20 is when the real race begins” is an instance of “real race” being used to describe the inner battle to finish versus the physical battle of fatigue.

Particularly interesting in Marni’s readings I thought was this use of intertextual (and intratextual in the case of Hamilton) ties in the construction of identity. The ways in which identity is co-constructed is a particular research interest of mine as I’m currently looking at audience design in the sociolinguistic interview. At the same time, Hamilton’s construction is working a little differently in that the author’s responses and interactions with the patient serve to help construct the patient’s “patient” identity, which is different from the audience and referee design theory that I’m working with.

I also find interesting Bakhtin’s notion that we are influenced by incorporating another’s words into our own discourse. This seems to me to be one of the major factors in the narratives that Marni is looking at. Although I did not get the chance to explore the narratives themselves, this question of taking on others’ words seems to me to be a prime site for understanding the ways in which intertextuality allows them to develop the identity of cancer survivors. In what ways to they adopt the “language” of cancer survival? In medical anthropology in undergrad, we often talked about how cancer is framed as a battle—the cancer battling the body and the patient battling the cancer, as though there is anything the patient can do to actually effect change on the cancer . In fact, the mere presence of all of these stories on Livestrong is to some extent an intertextual tie itself—Lance Armstrong is known for his bravery in battling his cancer and for going on to win many more races after his treatment. By positioning themselves with Livestrong, the authors of Marni’s narratives tap into the experience of Armstrong.

Most useful to me from Marni’s work is probably this idea of being influenced by the incorporation of others’ words. I believe part of WK is the taking on of a voice and a stance that others have already identified, and sometimes it is even taking on words such as “baww” or “butthurt” which shape the world of an additional interlocutor so that they understand and respond to the situation as an instance of WK instead of a different reaction they may have had otherwise.