Unmasking Cultural Taboos: Cancer, Graphic Medicine, and Neelam Kumar's To Cancer, with Love.

Abstract

In the 21st century, cancer remains shrouded in complex ways, imbued with sociocultural meanings that extend far beyond its clinical and biological aspects. The fear and anxiety surrounding cancer often prompt family and friends to respond with either excessive protection or emotional detachment, leaving patients feeling isolated and unsupported. This article challenges entrenched stereotypes, particularly cultural tendencies in India to conceal cancer diagnoses, associate the disease with karmic retribution, and view it through fatalistic and death-centered perspectives. Drawing on theories of pathography and restitution narratives, it offers an alternative perspective to the bleak and fatalistic portrayals of cancer commonly found in Indian cinema and popular culture. The article primarily focuses on Neelam Kumar's graphic memoir, To Cancer, with Love: A Graphic Novel (2017), while also engaging with its prose counterpart, To Cancer, with Love: My Journey of Joy (2015). The article investigates Kumar's subversion of conventional narratives of illness and powerful counter-narrative to the dominant discourse on cancer in India. As one of the pioneering graphic pathographies from India, Kumar's memoir presents a transformative and empowering perspective on the experience of cancer, challenging the societal norms that often stigmatize the disease.