Study, Reading and Workshop Questions on Audre Lorde’s Cancer Journals

Death and Dying Kay Fowler

1) “Your silence will not protect you.” What does Lorde mean by this phrase?   Find examples in the text of where Lorde puts this insight into practice.  Discuss how this concept is meaningful to you in terms of your own experiences and insights.

2) What does Lorde's text suggests about the impact of the loss of body parts – or abilities.  Discuss Lorde’s response, society’s response, the response of yourself and of people in your own experience to such losses.

3) “Where are the models’ (1-29). How important is it to have models to look to in various aspects of your life – and information tailored to your particular concerns/perspective?

4) What is the impact of race as Lorde identifies it on her experience of illness, the medical establishment, etc.?

5) What is the impact of sexuality as Lorde identifies it on her experience of illness, the medical establishment, etc.?

6) “Pain does not mellow you, nor does it ennoble, in my experience.” (49) Discuss in terms of Lorde’s narrative – and in terms of your own experience or awareness of other’s experience.

7) “The status of untouchable is a very unreal and lonely one…” (49) Discuss in terms of Lorde’s narrative – and in terms of your own experience or awareness of other’s experience.

8) What does Lorde have to say about silicone gel implant prosthesis, wigs, FGM, anorexia etc. (look at page. 75 as a start)

9)  What is the effect of viewing parts of Lorde's text written immediately in the aftermath of surgery etc. and other parts processed at a point some time later?  Does this dual timeline strengthen the narrative or obscure it?

10)  Does knowing that ultimately Lorde's breast cancer did recur and was fatal change the way in which we read her text written at a time when that was a feared possibility rather than a certainty?