Blogs as Dialogical Reparatory Work: A Theoretically Informed Analysis of Online Cancer Narratives

Globally, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that there are 20.6 million new cancer cases each year, and its incidence is expected to rise as the global population ages. At the same time, new technologies and advanced treatments are increasing survival rates, particularly in high-income countries. The need to understand cancer’s impact on psychosocial well-being and patients’ existential lifeworld is reflected in research, literature, pathographies, and other art forms. This article examines blogs as a distinctive arena for meaning-making, healing, and the articulation of cancer experiences. Through a close reading of three cancer blogs written by individuals with pelvic and colorectal cancers living in Norway, we examine illness narratives that often receive limited attention in private and public discourse. Drawing on Paul Ricoeur’s theory of narrative identity and configuration, we analyse how bloggers organise events, create meaning, and narrate their lives during potentially terminal illness. We also engage with Mikhail Bakhtin’s reflections on genre to explore blogs’ communicative character, heterogeneity of voices, and orientation towards anticipated responses. The findings suggest that cancer blogs function as intentional narrative and social resources during profound existential transformation. They also demonstrate that philosophical and literary concepts are valuable tools for analysing blogs as health humanities texts capable of capturing chaotic and disrupted illness stories.