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Beyond this mortal coil: femininity, death and discursive constructions of the anorexic body
Authors:
Helen M. Malson a; Jane M. Ussher
| Affiliation: | a Department of Psychology, University of East London Department of Psychology, University College London, United Kingdom. |
DOI:
10.1080/713685852
Publication Frequency:
4 issues per year
Subjects:
Counseling;
Death;
Death & Dying;
Death Studies;
Gerontology/Ageing;
Grief & Trauma Counseling - Adult;
Grief & Trauma Counseling - Children & Adolescents;
Health & Medical Anthropology;
Medical Sociology;
Palliative Care Nursing;
Pastoral Counseling;
Social Work with the Elderly;
Sociology of Religion;
Specialist Care;
Formats available:
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(English)
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Abstract
This paper presents an analysis of discursive constructions of the dying body in relation to anorexia nervosa. The analysis is based on semi-structured interviews with 23 women (21 diagnosed as anorexic and two self-diagnosed) who were asked to discuss their experiences of and ideas about anorexia, femininity, identity and the body. Amongst the many issues covered in the interviews were issues surrounding death and dying. The interviews were transcribed and analysed using a feminist post-structuralist form of discourse analysis. After briefly discussing this approach to research, the paper presents an analysis of those discourses and discursive resources deployed in the interviews in talk about death and dying in relation to self-starvation and the meanings of the anorexic, emaciated dying (female) body. The paper therefore presents an analysis of how the (female) 'anorexic' body is discursive and physically constituted as a dying body. It explores the different meanings of this dying anorexic body and the different subjectivities that it may signify. It thereby examines the ways in which this body is profoundly gendered and the ways in which femininity is imbricated in discursive constructions of death and dying. The paper discusses how post-structuralist theorizations of discourse, subjectivity, gender and social discipline can facilitate an understanding of the ways in which socio-historically specific discourses and discursive practices constitute and regulate experiences of the death and dying of women diagnosed as anorexic.
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