Ana's creed: interdiscursivity in pro-ana discourse

Abstract

Pro-anorexia (or pro-ana) is an internet-based eating disorder (ED) movement committed to supporting and encouraging or advising those who wish to initiate or maintain (Gavin et al. 2008) an ED, i.e. those who are not yet ready to recover (Dias 2003). The aim of this thesis is to explore interdiscursivity (ID) in pro-ana discourse, showing how members of the pro-ana community draw on the discourse of Evangelical Christianity in their online interactions.

The analysis examines two bodies of data. The main focus is on the data taken from a pro-ana website, comprising 219 message threads collected over a period of 47 days from a pro-ana message board. The data taken from the discussion fora of several Christian websites serves as the evidence base, or empirical defence, for the study. By drawing on discursive psychology (DP) and the concept of ID, the analysis considers the way in which pro-ana site users display a marked orientation to each of the main aspects, or components, of Evangelical Christian discourse in their interactions on the website. Part of the thesis is also dedicated to reviewing current research in ID and explaining the rationale behind the use of both ID and DP.

The primary analytical focus is on the construction of Ana as god(dess), and so the first empirical chapter considers orientations in the data to the notions of committing to Ana, following Ana and failing Ana with respect to the ways Christians orient to their relationship with God. It examines the construction of Ana’s voice, and it deals with the contradictory depiction of Ana as both a loving and a cruel god(dess), drawing parallels with the orientation to the voice of God in the Christian discourse, and the construction of the Old Testament God of wrath and the New Testament God of love. It also accounts for potentially competing constructions of Ana, noting their place in the data and the impact they have on the construction of Ana the deity.

The secondary analytical focus is on the construction of all the other religious components in the discourse, and so the second empirical chapter considers how speakers construct food as the devil, hunger or craving as temptation, and eating as sinning. It also explores the speakers’ orientation to fat as punishment (or the wages of sin), and to cutting/self-harming, exercising, fasting and purging as penance (or atonement) for sin.

By exploring the religious aspect of pro-ana websites from a practical, participant-led perspective, the thesis demonstrates how speakers use discourse in a very real way, and by focusing on what speakers are ‘doing’ with their talk and how they are positioning themselves within the discourse, it presents for the reader a unique, fully worked-up, interdiscursive analysis. Aside from the impact this study will have in the field of discourse research, it is reasonable to suggest that it might also have some influence in healthcare. The fact that there is an ED-related discourse out there which draws so completely on a religious domain has consequences for those with eating disordered behaviours or tendencies and, therefore, potential implications for treatment and care practices. And the study’s wider significance and applications are discussed in the concluding chapter of the thesis.

Date of Award	May 2015
Original language	English
Sponsors	Department of Employment and Learning
Supervisor	Catrin Rhys (Supervisor) & Karyn Stapleton (Supervisor)