Challenging addiction in Canadian literature and classrooms / Cara Fabre.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Fabre, Cara, 1978- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Alcoholism in literature.

Alcoholism--Social aspects.

Alcoholism.

Drug addiction in literature.

Drug addiction--Social aspects.

Drug addiction.

Eating disorders in literature.

Eating disorders--Social aspects.

Eating disorders.

Self-destructive behavior in literature.

Self-destructive behavior--Social aspects.

Self-destructive behavior.

Psychology, Pathological, in literature.

Social aspects.

Physical Description:

259 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Toronto ; Buffalo ; London : University of Toronto Press, 2016.

Summary:

"In the richly interdisciplinary study, Challenging Addiction in Canadian Literature and Classrooms, Cara Fabre argues that popular culture in its many forms contributes to common assumptions about the causes, and personal and social implications, of addiction. Recent fictional depictions of addiction significantly refute the idea that addiction is caused by poor individual choices or solely by disease through the connections the authors draw between substance use and poverty, colonialism, and gender-based violence. With particular interest in the pervasive myth of the "Drunken Indian," Fabre asserts that these novels reimagine addiction as social suffering rather than individual pathology or moral failure. Fabre builds on the growing body of humanities research that brings literature into active engagement with other fields of study including biomedical and cognitive behavioural models of addiction, medical and health policies of harm reduction, and the practices of Alcoholics Anonymous. The book further engages with critical pedagogical strategies to teach critical awareness of stereotypes of addiction and to encourage the potential of literary analysis as a form of social activism."-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

1 Ideological Tropes of Contemporary Addiction Narratives 25

2 Poverty, Individualism, and the Meaningful Uses of Alcohol and Drugs in Christy Ann Conlin's Heave and Heather O'Neill's lullabies for little criminals 50

3 Anorexia and the Production of Economically Oriented Subjects in Ibi Kaslik's Skinny and Kevin Patterson's Consumption 91

4 Dismantling the Myth of the "Drunken Indian" through Beatrice Culleton Mosionier's In Search of April Rain tree and Eden Robinson's Monkey Beach 134.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

9781442631960

1442631961

OCLC:

950450976