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Folk and state stories of suffering, frustration, and anger suicide in Sri Lanka

journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-07, 16:38 authored by Tom Widger
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

History

Publication status

  • Published

Journal

Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry

ISSN

0165-005X

Publisher

Springer Verlag

Issue

2

Volume

36

Page range

225-244

Department affiliated with

  • Anthropology Publications

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2013-01-25

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