Reimagining Boundaries: The Body as a Contested Geospace in Suleika Jaoud's Between Two Kingdoms

Abstract

This paper would explore how a chronic illness like leukemia overpowers Suleika Jaoud’s body. The transformation caused by chemotherapy turns her body into a contested geospatial terrain that becomes a site of physical and emotional struggle. She feels alienated from the social spaces which were once familiar. Her cancer diagnosis alters her relationship to the physical spaces like home, hospital and workspace. The research question is how a chronically ill person’s body becomes a contested geospace in Suleika Jaoud’s memoir, Between Two Kingdoms? The hypothesis: The identity of an individual is reconfigured in response to the physical and emotional transformation brought by an illness. The present paper is an analytical study. Principally, this is an analysis of a selected illness memoir from the perspective of the body as a geospace. The researcher proposes to use close reading, analysis and interpretation of the primary source as a methodological tool to accomplish the study. Illness memoir included in the study, Suleika Jaoud’s memoir, Between Two Kingdoms deals with different phases in a cancer survivor’s road of life. Most illness memoirs typically emphasize only the successful recovery stories of patients. The present study is limited to a single primary source.