Abstract
ABSTRACTFocusing on Isabel Franc and Susanna Martín’s Alicia en un mundo real (2010), this article will explore the representation and the visibility of the cancerous body in the graphic form. Based on Franc’s experience, the graphic novel takes the form of a fictional breast cancer memoir as it documents the story of Alicia, a journalist in her mid-fifties, from the moment that she discovers the malignant lump. By emphasising how the patient experiences the different stages of breast cancer in this fictional life story, I argue that Franc and Martín rewrite the breast cancer narrative by presenting the sick body as a body in process, a body that is continually crossing boundaries—from the sick body to the convalescent, the cured, and even the reeroticized and lesbian body. What is more, the visibility of the body in process here is key as Franc and Martín transform the politics of visibility with respect to the sick body—first by making it visible, but then by providing its substitution or replacement with other bodies. I posit that Franc and Martín’s graphic novel is defiant in its presentation of the breast cancer patient’s story as survival and empowerment are the result of visibility, humour, and female solidarity.
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