Suresh Canagarajah: LANGUAGE INCOMPETENCE: LEARNING TO COMMUNICATE THROUGH CANCER, DISABILITY, AND ANOMALOUS EMBODIMENT

Abstract

After his appendiceal cancer diagnosis in 2014, Suresh Canagarajah’s identity, ongoing professional practices, and embodied experiences have dramatically changed. Canagarajah had to go through an 8-hour surgery, followed by 12 invasive cycles of chemotherapy. The aftermath of these gruelling treatments caused Canagarajah to develop neuropathy in his hands and feet and spinal stenosis, which made it hard for him to walk, climb, or maintain balance. These physical frailties in his body led to his identity shifts. Due to his sudden physical impairment, Canagarajah also found it difficult and condescending to communicate with people around him. He felt he was losing his personhood gradually. Nevertheless, Canagarajah could not keep his physical, social, and personal changes detached from his academic life. This book is a memoir in which Canagarajah re-visits his research, writing, and teaching journey after his cancer diagnosis. It is a narrative that intertwines together theories, concepts, textual analyses, and autoethnographic data from the lens of language and communicative practices to essentially re-articulate what the concept of language (in)competence actually means. Overall, the book is an illuminating, thought-provoking, and unique work that welcomes readers to think critically about how we understand, accomplish, and discursively construct different aspects of what language (in)competence means in our everyday communicative practices.