Due to copyright issues, an electronic copy of the thesis must be ordered from the faculty. For the faculty to have time to process the order, the order must be received by the faculty at the latest 2 days before the public defence. Orders received later than 2 days before the defence will not be processed. After the public defence, please address any inquiries regarding the thesis to the candidate.
Trial Lecture – time and place
See Trial Lecture.
Adjudication committee
- First opponent: Professor Carsten Stage, Aarhus University,
- Second opponent: Professor Ann Elise Wedding Isaksen, University of Bergen,
- Third member and chair of the evaluation committee: Professor Bjørn Morten Hofmann, University of Oslo
Chair of the Defence
Professor Nina Køpke Vøllestad, University of Oslo
Principal Supervisor
Professor Hilde Bondevik, University of Oslo
Summary
This dissertation is positioned within the interdisciplinary fields of medical humanities and sociology, examining how individuals with cancer use blogging as a medium to narrate and make sense of their illness experiences. The study focuses on pelvic and colorectal cancer—two prevalent yet often stigmatized cancer types in Norway.
The research explores three key questions: (1) How do bloggers articulate the existential challenges associated with cancer? (2) What linguistic and metaphorical strategies do they employ to conceptualize their illness? (3) How do they construct narrative identities through blogging? The study adopts a hermeneutic methodology, conducting a qualitative textual analysis of selected personal cancer blogs to identify recurring themes, narrative structures, and cultural framings of illness and survival.
The findings indicate that blogging serves as a crucial platform for meaning-making, emotional processing, and community-building. Bloggers use metaphors, particularly personifications of cancer, to externalize and negotiate their experiences, and their narratives often challenge dominant discourses of cancer survivorship. Furthermore, the study reveals how cultural norms shape which illness experiences are shared and which remain marginalized in public discourse.
By incorporating Norwegian-language blogs into the broader field of illness narratives, this dissertation contributes to existing research on cancer storytelling by highlighting the complexities of narrating a stigmatized illness. The study underscores the significance of digital storytelling as a tool for self-representation, social engagement, and identity reconstruction in the context of serious illness.
Additional information
Contact the research support staff.