Performing breast cancer stories: disrupting narratives and constructing selves

Delaney, Lori (2026) Performing breast cancer stories: disrupting narratives and constructing selves. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

This practice-research project uses performance to explore lived experiences of breast cancer and to challenge dominant narratives of ‘courage’ and ‘survivorship’ that have shaped public discourse since the 1980s. While Medical Humanities scholarship has critiqued normative cancer narratives, there is limited research on how theatre can disrupt these conventions by representing the complexities of ‘biographical disruption’ (Bury, 1982). The project takes as catalyst my experience of breast cancer and situates itself within the field of autobiographical and documentary performance, extending the singular auto into a plural form by inviting others with lived experience onto the stage. The practice research explores how verbatim accounts of lived experience can coherently translate that experience. Through autobiographical, verbatim, and documentary methods, the research investigates how diverse first-person accounts, particularly those marginalised within existing representations, can be coherently translated onstage.

By foregrounding intersectional perspectives, the project responds to the dominance of predominantly white, middle class, non-disabled cancer narratives and highlights the need for more inclusive cultural, medical, and aesthetic understandings of breast cancer. Drawing on work that positions autobiographical performance as a site of self-agency and narrative authority, the research addresses the under-theorisation of performance artists working with breast cancer narratives. Funded by the SGSAH AHRC Doctoral Training Partnership, the project contributes new insight into how performance can articulate the disrupted, fragmented, and transformative dimensions of breast cancer self-narrative.

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Additional Information: Supported by funding from the SGSAH AHRC Doctoral Training Partnership.
• Subjects: P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN2000 Dramatic representation. The Theater; R Medicine > RC Internal medicine > RC0254 Neoplasms. Tumors. Oncology (including Cancer)
• Colleges/Schools: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Culture and Creative Arts; College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Health & Wellbeing > General Practice and Primary Care
• Funder's Name: Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)
• Supervisor's Name: Heddon, Professor Deirdre and Macdonald, Professor Sara
• Date of Award: 2026
• Depositing User: Theses Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:2026-86314
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 09 Nov 2026 11:04
• Last Modified: 09 Nov 2026 11:08
• Thesis DOI: 10.5525/gla.thesis.86314
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/86314