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Work #370 · Mid

The Cancer Journals

Audre Lorde
1980 · English
Prose memoir-meditation · Black feminist autobiographical-political writing

Lorde's 1980 prose memoir on breast cancer diagnosis and mastectomy — the major early feminist-political analysis of women's health

Attribute Fingerprint

Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.

Attribute The Cancer Journals (Mid)
Time · Extent Infinite
Time · Ontological Status Substantival
Time · Grain Continuous
Time · Freedom Non-Deterministic
Time · Traversability Linear
Time · Dimensionality One
Time · Direction Uni-directional
Space · Extent Infinite
Space · Ontological Status Substantival
Space · Curvature Flat
Space · Dimensionality Three
Space · Locality Local
Matter · Extent Infinite
Matter · Ontological Status Substantival
Matter · Conservation Conserved
Matter · Dimensionality Three
Matter · Locality Local
Observer · Time Instance Single
Observer · Space Instance Single
Observer · Knowledge Extent Partial
Observer · Knowledge Retainment Total
Observer · Physicality Embodied
Observer · Agency Both
Observer · Number Singular
Observer · Metaphysical Agency Cosmic-ordering
Observer · Moral Authority Experience
Observer · Theological Method
Energy · Extent Infinite
Energy · Ontological Status Substantival
Energy · Conservation Conserved
Energy · Dispersibility Irreversible
Information · Ontological Status Substantival
Information · Cosmic Conservation Conserved
Information · Personal Conservation Conserved
Information · Granularity Continuous

Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence

What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.

Time

The Cancer Journals

Personal time of cancer diagnosis and treatment.

Space

The Cancer Journals

The hospital; the home; the broader political space.

Matter

The Cancer Journals

Lorde's embodied cancerous-then-post-mastectomy body.

Observer

The Cancer Journals

Lorde as singular first-person observer.

Energy

The Cancer Journals

Energies of medical confrontation and political analysis.

Information

The Cancer Journals

The personal-medical-political record preserved.

Internal Tensions

Where each work's argument pulls against itself.

The Cancer Journals

Lorde's subsequent cancer recurrence and 1992 death deepened the framework. Subsequent feminist analysis of women's health builds extensively on the Cancer Journals.