Cancer as a metaphor

Potts, Amanda ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4598-6577 and Semino, Elena 2019. Cancer as a metaphor. Metaphor and Symbol 34 (2) , pp. 81-95. 10.1080/10926488.2019.1611723

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Abstract

Since the publication of Susan Sontag’s highly influential Illness as Metaphor in 1978, many studies have provided follow-up analyses on her critique of metaphors for cancer, but none have investigated her claims about the uses and implications of cancer as a metaphor (e.g., the cancer of corruption), and her prediction that medical advances would make this metaphor obsolete. In this article, we present the first systematic study of cancer as a metaphor in contemporary English. We show the forms, frequencies, and functions of 925 metaphorical uses of cancer-related vocabulary in two large English language corpora, and discuss their implications for: (a) the framing of the phenomena that are most frequently described as cancers and of potential courses of action to be taken in relation to these phenomena; (b) perceptions of cancer itself; and (c) theoretical accounts of what makes a metaphor successful, in terms of its effectiveness and its applicability to a wide range of topics. In this way, we provide detailed evidence, and additional nuance, for Sontag’s critique of cancer as a metaphor and put forward an explanation for the current persistence of this metaphor, despite its controversial status.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Published Online
Status:	Published
Schools:	English, Communication and Philosophy
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HM Sociology P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics P Language and Literature > PE English
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis (Routledge)
ISSN:	1092-6488
Related URLs:	https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1...
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	19 February 2021
Date of Acceptance:	23 April 2019
Last Modified:	09 May 2023 20:36
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/122603

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