“Challenging Borders: Susanna Kaysen’s Girl, Interrupted as a Subversive Disability Memoir”
This article analyses Susanna Kaysen’s Girl, Interrupted as a subversive memoir and “counter-diagnosis,” relying on disability studies, women studies and critical discourse analysis. Taking advantage of the metaphoric adjective “borderline” in her diagnosis of “Borderline Personality Disorder” (BPD)...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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European Association for American Studies
2020-06-01
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| Series: | European Journal of American Studies |
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| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/ejas/16051 |
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| _version_ | 1841558251673485312 |
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| author | Pascale Antolin |
| author_facet | Pascale Antolin |
| author_sort | Pascale Antolin |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This article analyses Susanna Kaysen’s Girl, Interrupted as a subversive memoir and “counter-diagnosis,” relying on disability studies, women studies and critical discourse analysis. Taking advantage of the metaphoric adjective “borderline” in her diagnosis of “Borderline Personality Disorder” (BPD), Kaysen constantly emphasizes borders and boundaries—whether topographic, mimetic or generic—in order to cross and transgress them all the better. To achieve her goal, she relies on two major strategies of subversion, that is, abjection and carnival—including humor, irony, “symbolic inversion” and grotesque images. Thereby, Kaysen questions not only her own diagnosis and preconceived ideas about madness—women’s madness in particular—and mental patients, but she also challenges her recovery and the conventional genre of the disability memoir. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-5dc9b8d11f864401979b62d2ba1add15 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1991-9336 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2020-06-01 |
| publisher | European Association for American Studies |
| record_format | Article |
| series | European Journal of American Studies |
| spelling | doaj-art-5dc9b8d11f864401979b62d2ba1add152025-01-06T09:09:06ZengEuropean Association for American StudiesEuropean Journal of American Studies1991-93362020-06-0115210.4000/ejas.16051“Challenging Borders: Susanna Kaysen’s Girl, Interrupted as a Subversive Disability Memoir”Pascale AntolinThis article analyses Susanna Kaysen’s Girl, Interrupted as a subversive memoir and “counter-diagnosis,” relying on disability studies, women studies and critical discourse analysis. Taking advantage of the metaphoric adjective “borderline” in her diagnosis of “Borderline Personality Disorder” (BPD), Kaysen constantly emphasizes borders and boundaries—whether topographic, mimetic or generic—in order to cross and transgress them all the better. To achieve her goal, she relies on two major strategies of subversion, that is, abjection and carnival—including humor, irony, “symbolic inversion” and grotesque images. Thereby, Kaysen questions not only her own diagnosis and preconceived ideas about madness—women’s madness in particular—and mental patients, but she also challenges her recovery and the conventional genre of the disability memoir.https://journals.openedition.org/ejas/16051carnivaltransgressionabjectionBorderline Personality Disordercounter-diagnosisdisability memoir |
| spellingShingle | Pascale Antolin “Challenging Borders: Susanna Kaysen’s Girl, Interrupted as a Subversive Disability Memoir” European Journal of American Studies carnival transgression abjection Borderline Personality Disorder counter-diagnosis disability memoir |
| title | “Challenging Borders: Susanna Kaysen’s Girl, Interrupted as a Subversive Disability Memoir” |
| title_full | “Challenging Borders: Susanna Kaysen’s Girl, Interrupted as a Subversive Disability Memoir” |
| title_fullStr | “Challenging Borders: Susanna Kaysen’s Girl, Interrupted as a Subversive Disability Memoir” |
| title_full_unstemmed | “Challenging Borders: Susanna Kaysen’s Girl, Interrupted as a Subversive Disability Memoir” |
| title_short | “Challenging Borders: Susanna Kaysen’s Girl, Interrupted as a Subversive Disability Memoir” |
| title_sort | challenging borders susanna kaysen s girl interrupted as a subversive disability memoir |
| topic | carnival transgression abjection Borderline Personality Disorder counter-diagnosis disability memoir |
| url | https://journals.openedition.org/ejas/16051 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT pascaleantolin challengingborderssusannakaysensgirlinterruptedasasubversivedisabilitymemoir |