Managing a disrupted lifecourse: issues of identity and emotion work

This article draws on the experiences of two groups of people: namely a gro up of people who have defined, or still define themselves as 'infertile' an d/or 'involuntarily childless', and second, a group of people with cancer w ho have a terminal prognosis, who may be perceived as dying 'prematurely'. We start by arguing that 'infertility' and/or 'involuntary childlessness' a nd terminal illness have a disruptive effect on daily lives and future expe ctations, and we are concerned throughout with how this disruption is manag ed. In particular, we explore how individuals who have experienced such a d isruption to their lives manage both their sense of self and the self in re lation to others. Within this we are concerned specifically with the emotio n work which individuals engage in, and we explore the link between emotion work and lifecourse disruption.