The Anorexic Body: Discipline, Power, and Resistance in Selected Contemporary Novels

Abstract

The paper aims at understanding eating disorders in general and anorexia nervosa in particular by examining three novels, two Western novels, namely the Canadian novel, Skinny (2004) by Ibi Kaslik, the American novel, Wintergirls (2009) by Laurie Halse Anderson and the South Korean novel, The Vegetarian (2007) trans. (2015) by Han Kang from a Foucauldian feminist perspective. It focuses on discussing the strategies or the literary devices used by the authors to convey their embodied messages/ subjects. Symbols, images, metaphors, dramatic irony, mythical allusions and other elements, intensifying and signifying physicality are woven into the fabric of the narratives that speak of the psychology of the female characters. The paper analyzes the novels in terms of the narrative merits that help achieve a unique correspondence between form and content. It seeks to subvert the discourses that valorize the hierarchal representations of femininity. Adopting Michel Foucault's theoretical framework, it attempts to prove that the female body, besides being the site of cultural inscription through disciplinary and normalizing practices, is also the locus of power.