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Part of
Discourses on the Edges of Life
Edited by Vicent Salvador †, Adéla Kotátková and Ignasi Clemente
[IVITRA Research in Linguistics and Literature 26] 2020
► pp. 85–96

Religion, collusion, and “fighting”

Pediatric cancer end-of-life discourses in Catalonia, Spain

| Louis Dundas Centre For Children’s Palliative Care | Institute of Child Health, University College London | Hunter College, City University of New York

This chapter is based on an ethnographic study of communicative practices surrounding the death of a five-year-old pediatric cancer patient in a hospital in Catalonia (Spain). In the present case study, I highlight the significant co-occurring variation in how cancer and death are discussed or avoided within the same sociocultural. Specifically, I focus on three ways of talking about cancer and death: (1) using religious imagery, (2) co-creating the optimistic and hopeful collusion that everything is going well, and (3) using “let’s keep fighting” language.

Keywords: childhood, death, information non-disclosure, optimism, health communication
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Methods and analysis
  • 3.Eli’s cancer trajectory
    • 3.1Religious imagery: Eli’s awareness of death in private conversations with her mother
    • 3.2Optimistic collusion and complete non-disclosure
    • 3.3“Let’s keep fighting”
  • 4.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Note
  • References
Published online: 9 April 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ivitra.26.06cle
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