"""Starvation...is Who I Am"": From Eating Disorder to Recovering Identities Through Narrative Co-Construction in an Internet Support Group"
Walstrom, Mary K.
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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/87570
Description
Title
"""Starvation...is Who I Am"": From Eating Disorder to Recovering Identities Through Narrative Co-Construction in an Internet Support Group"
Author(s)
Walstrom, Mary K.
Issue Date
1999
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Carolyn E. Taylor
Department of Study
Speech Communication
Discipline
Speech Communication
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Mass Communications
Language
eng
Abstract
This dissertation examines narrative activity within an Internet-based support group for women with anorexia and bulimia, alt.support.eating-disord. (ASED), focusing on identity co-construction. Through micro-level discourse analysis, I trace ways in which support group participants portray themselves and others as protagonists through five types of positionings, involving action, states of being, and stances of thinking, feeling, and evaluating. I also address ways in which these positionings systematically appear within personal narrative, an ASED public narrative, and a cultural narrative of recovery. I argue that through these five positionings, as seen within two-part exchanges (an initial post and a reply), the co-construction of five stages of identity may be seen, identities ranging from eating-disorder-oriented to recovering. I further argue that this identity co-construction process co-occurs with, and is potentially facilitated by, the facework accomplished by group participants, creating a communicative context of safety. My analysis lays out theoretical and methodological implications, stressing interdisciplinary directions for research. I assert an ethical approach to Internet-based research, rooted in a qualitative, feminist, and communitarian agenda. I foreground practical facets of this analysis for women with eating disorders, illuminating ways that micro-level choices in structuring and presenting eating disorder problems shape everyday eating disorder practices and potentials for recovery. I frame and situate this analysis within my participation in ASED discussions and my own long-term struggle with anorexia nervosa. These personal experiences and perspectives were central to my ability to analytically see and emotionally sense the myriad voices that emerged as salient to me within ASED narratives, voices that ground and structure this micro-level discourse analysis.
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