Glamorous Healing and ‘Rebellious Hope’

Tracing Grief in Transmedial Cancer Life Writing

Bibliographic Data

ID12648675
AuthorsAstrid Joutseno (0000-0003-1942-8907, University of Turku, corresponding author)
Year2025
Pages1-15
Publication date2025-11-20
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueLife Writing (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1448-4528 • E-ISSN: 1751-2964
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14484528.2025.2578188
OpenAlexW4416409539
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited32

This article investigates transmedial autobiographical writing practices by women ill with metastatic cancer. Their multi-platformed and mediated life writing normalises the writing about and commercialising of grief and dying. I draw examples from two popular cancer life writers: Canadian Nalie Agustin and British Dame Deborah James, who inscribed their lives and selves on digital platforms until death. I look for their performances and omissions of what I have named the grief of the dying; a particular form of grieving that impacts those living with incurable illness and a heightened sense of death’s nearness. Examining the limits and possibilities that transmedial life writing affords, I trace the transmutations of hope and healing in the autobiographical construction of metastatic cancer. Inscriptions of selves/lives take place in a transmedial network and are informed by the cultural landscapes of intersecting differences. I propose that a highly public life writing practice addressing illness and dying re-inscribes norms of acceptable ill selves and lives, while at the same time exposing illness cultures to critical examination. For the dying life writers, what I describe may ultimately be a hindrance – an ambivalent space when it comes to grieving

Autoethnography · Cancer · Distressing · Grief · Life writing · Tracing · Empathy and Medical Education · Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health · Mental Health via Writing

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