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Suffering, Frustration, and Anger: Class, Gender, and History in Sri Lankan Suicide Stories

Widger, Tom

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Abstract

This paper explores competing stories of suffering, frustration and anger that shape the performance and reception of suicidal behaviours in contemporary Sri Lanka. Drawing from the results of 21 months of ethnographic fieldwork, I show how suicidal acts fit within broader narratives of class and gender experience and expression that draw from contemporary and historical ‘folk’ and ‘state’ discourses. Debates over whether suffering, frustration and anger are legitimate socio-effective states to exhibit come to determine the kinds of claims and counter-claims that suicidal people on the one hand, and those charged with their treatment and management on the other, can make with regard to the efficacy of suicide as a means of social action. Through such debates—not only what it means to be suicidal in Sri Lanka but also what it means to be middle class or working class, male or female, etc. are made and remade anew.

Citation

Widger, T. (2012). Suffering, Frustration, and Anger: Class, Gender, and History in Sri Lankan Suicide Stories. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry, 36(2), 225-244. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11013-012-9250-6

Journal Article Type Article
Publication Date Jun 1, 2012
Deposit Date Oct 17, 2014
Publicly Available Date Mar 11, 2015
Journal Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry
Print ISSN 0165-005X
Electronic ISSN 1573-076X
Publisher Springer
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 36
Issue 2
Pages 225-244
DOI https://doi.org/10.1007/s11013-012-9250-6
Keywords Suicide, Class, Gender, History, Sri Lanka.

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