Beyond Slash, Burn, and Poison: Transforming Breast Cancer Stories into Action [Paperback]

Marcy Jane Knopf-Newman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 29, 2004 | ISBN-10: 0813534712 | ISBN-13: 978-0813534718 | Edition: 1

"Beyond Slash, Burn, and Poison makes a great contribution to the emerging literature on the breast cancer movement. The facts and framework of this book powerfully demonstrate the ability of women's words to transform society, and point the way to a future in which breast cancer policy reflects the experiences of all women—and men—affected by the disease."—Barbara Brenner, executive director of Breast Cancer Action

"Beyond Slash, Burn, and Poison frames a number of crucial perspectives on breast cancer in relation to femininity, privilege, sexuality, race, and the environment."—Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, author of Touching Feeling: Affect, Pedagogy, Performativity

"This is an extremely useful and readable history of breast cancer writing framed within a larger feminist history."—Diane Price Herndl, Iowa State University

Depending on one’s vantage point, breast cancer can be a very different experience, and indeed, a very different concern. It is, for some, a personal struggle; for others, it is a disease posing scientific and environmental challenges; and for others it is a highly charged and politicized issue around which policy wars rage. Beyond Slash, Burn, and Poison brings a unique perspective to breast cancer by recognizing the overlapping relationship of all these realities.

Drawing on the writings of Rachel Carson, Betty Ford, Rose Kushner, and Audre Lorde, this book explores the various ways in which patient-centered texts continue to leave their mark on breast cancer in the political realm and, ultimately, on the disease itself. Ordered chronologically, the selections trace the progression of discussions about breast cancer from a time when the subject was kept private and silent to when it became part of public discourse. The texts included are personal accounts, written by women struggling to play an active role in their healing process and, at the same time, hoping to help others do the same.

Passionately written and well-researched, Beyond Slash, Burn, and Poison transforms how we think about breast cancer. Rather than facilitating forums for separate discussions, this book brings conversations into dialogue with each other. It is essential reading for anyone concerned with breast cancer and its history, as well as for those interested in the effect of the environment on public health and the role that literature plays in public policy and medicine.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Beyond Slash, Burn, and Poison makes a great contribution to the emerging literature on the breast cancer movement -- Barbara Brenner, executive director of Breast Cancer Action

This is an extremely useful and readable history of breast cancer writing framed within a larger feminist history -- Diane Price Herndl, Iowa State University

About the Author

Marcy Jane Knopf-Newman is an assistant professor of English at Boise State University. She is the editor of The Sleeper Wakes: Harlem Renaissance Stories by Women and Jessie Fauset’s The Chinaberry Tree & Selected Writings.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Rutgers University Press; 1 edition (September 29, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813534712
• ISBN-13: 978-0813534718
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,422,031 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Understanding Breast Cancer, December 22, 2004

By 

Andrew M. Lakritz (Arlington, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Beyond Slash, Burn, and Poison: Transforming Breast Cancer Stories into Action (Paperback)

Marcy Knopf-Newman's new book on breast cancer stories is an important intervention in this oft avoided topic. From Rachel Carson's "public silence," to Audre Lorde's very public examination of her own breast cancer, Ms. Knopf-Newman writes a history of mid- to late-twentieth century approaches to the act of telling stories about breast cancer. What makes Ms. Knopf-Newman's book so important, however, is the arc or plot of its telling: from enforced silence and acquiescence to the prevailing dogmas of medical science at mid-century, and the near complete and unquestioned predominance of the Halsted radical mastectomy, to the emergence of a critical questioning of medical practices and procedures as revolutionary medical practitioners, feminists, and even public figures begin to enable ordinary people to see breast cancer in new ways and seek new forms of treatment. Ms. Knopf-Newman is espeically good on Betty Ford and the public impact of her cancer and treatment, as well as on the history of Rose Kushner, a local Maryland activist who brushed history against the grain with her insistance on the short-comings of the Halsted procedure even before the US Congress. This is a well research, well reasoned, and well told story - one that is not told often enough, certainly. And it's refreshing, as well, because it's told in a compelling and straightforward language, one that does not rely on any overly wrought theoretical language. And finally, it's amazing, too, just for its sense of awe and admiration for the figures it treats - Carson, Ford, Kushner, Lorde. This is a book of heroes, not victims, and deserve a wide audience.

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The fight for patient rights in breast cancer treatment, February 7, 2005

By 

Marie Kahn - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Beyond Slash, Burn, and Poison: Transforming Breast Cancer Stories into Action (Paperback)

Beyond, Slash, Burn, and Poison explains much about breast cancer and the history of its treatment as it chronicles women's long struggles for the right to have a voice in the treatment of breast cancer. Author Marcy Knopf-Newman focuses on the experiences of five women -- 19th century novelist Frances Burney, Rachel Carson, Betty Ford, Rose Kushner, and Audre Lorde -- each of whose conduct comprised a major step in empowering women with breast cancer. The book shows that struggling to make our voices heard can change the consciousness not only of victims of oppression, but of the dominant culture as well. Over the years, work for social change does succeed!

In the early days of breast cancer treatment, women experienced a terrifying conflict, here best illustrated in the experiences of Carson and Kushner. Though fully aware that the power over their health lay with the establishment that valued deference, discretion, and being nice, they honored their deep inner need to investigate treatment options, speak out, challenge the medical establishment, and be honest and open about the disease.

Thanks mostly to the work of people like these, medicine began to evolve in the early seventies so that information has become increasingly available to patients, multiple options for the treatment of breast cancer have been developed, and patients' needs are increasingly attended to. The book is not just a history; reading it makes one feel committed to becoming informed and assertive in exploring medical treatment options