CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2011
| Author | Cettl, Franciska |
|---|---|
| Title | Birth and Death of an Autonomous Protesting Anorexic Subject: Anorexic Body that Matters |
| Summary | In this thesis I start from the observation that feminist accounts of anorexia that focus on the dominant cultural image of female body theorize anorexia as paradigmatic of feminist body politics. I analyze accounts such as Bordo’s (1993), Grosz’s (1994), McRobbie’s (2009) to see how they paint a figure of a protesting female anorexic subject. I look at the assumptions of such readings about resisting agency, which I call “liberal”. I note, following Wilson (1998), that feminist cultural readings of anorexia overlook biological body in an antiessentialist move and that instead matter can be seen as dynamic. Through her notion of “morphology” I propose sexual difference is one of many, not crucial difference in anorexic body. Through her notion of “brain in the gut” (2004) I theorize on biochemical effects of starvation and how this shifts the notion of mind/brain’s control over body in protest. I argue there is no single theory of anorexia, nor a coherent anorexic subject (not mentally disordered nor feminist protesting). I look into ethical issues around anorexic body, considering Keywood’s analysis (2000) of medico-legal discourses on treatment without consent of anorexic bodies. Through seeing matter as performative (Barad 2003), I argue that legal enactment of autonomous/autonomy-lacking human subject is a material-discursive performance. Following Deleuze and Guattari (1987) I see anorexia in terms of biological-political experimentation or practice between bodies, not determined a-priori as any condition. Consequently, ethical issues concerning anorexia could be seen as a negotiation between bodies in a local context. |
| Supervisor | Loutfi, Anna |
| Department | Gender Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2011/cettl_franciska.pdf |
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