Honest ink: Exploring the influence of inherited narratives on identity (re)construction

This PhD work consists of 1) a full-length memoir and 2) a critical work that engages directly with the research and ideas that informed the book’s creation. My research explores the impact of inherited narratives on the development and (re)construction of identity, focusing specifically on the narratives of the “Other”, as (combinations of) socially constructed, culturally assigned, self-selected, and confessional narratives. I aim to combine survivor and illness (chronic and terminal) narratives with queer narratives through characters whose experiences in (re)constructing their identities ultimately reveal dark areas of humanity with both humility and humor. I undertook this work using an autoethnographic methodology that situates my life as a cancer patient and a member of the queer community inside the support networks of a drag family/community incorporating the lenses of narratology and queer theory. I chose memoir as the creative component to this work because I believe memoir narratives are uniquely suited to bringing discussions of identity (re)construction in queer and illness narratives to modern (and mainstream) audiences