Linguistics, Vol. 12 No. 2, 2011.
Original scientific paper
Down to the bone: A corpus-based critical discourse analysis of pro-eating disorder blogs
Morana Lukač
; University of Zadar
Abstract
The pro-eating-disorder community is almost exclusively an online community of
individuals who claim that eating disorders are not an illness, but rather a lifestyle
choice. This study offers an insight into the ideologies constructed in the
pro-eating-disorder online discourse by using micro and macro levels of critical
discourse analysis (CDA) on 19 blogs written by the self-declared members of the
community. Linguistic analysis of the pro-eating-disorder discourse has been
largely under-represented and this study is the first to use a corpus-linguistics approach
to CDA in analysing the websites’ content. The results of the analysis
show that the pro-eating-disorder community constructs the ideology of eating
disorders as a life-style via demedicalised reference to the illness. The study also
elaborates on the construction of the negative image of “an outsider” (any person
not belonging to the community) as an element of self-determination. By using
the corpus linguistic technique of keyness, main topics of the discourse are identified,
suggesting relevant relations between the discourse of measuring and will
power and the underlying pro-eating-disorder ideologies.
Keywords
blog; pro-eating disorder community; critical discourse analysis; demedicalisation; corpus linguistics
Hrčak ID:
75897
URI
Publication date:
16.12.2011.
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