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

Widger, Tom

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.
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1443610