Bodies and Language: Health, Ailments, Disabilities

Vaidehi Ramanathan

nov 2009 · Multilingual Matters

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This book critically addresses the role of language in our collective construction of ‘normal’ bodies. Addressing a range of concerns linked with visible and invisible, chronic and terminal conditions, the volume probes issues in and around patient and caregiver accounts. Focussing on body conditions associated with breast cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, (type-1) diabetes, epilepsy, partial hearing and autism, the book draws on a range of critical theories to contest collectively assembled notions of ‘abnormality,’ ‘disability’ and ‘impairments.’ It also addresses the need for applied sociolinguists to take account of how our researching practices - the texts we produce, the orientations we assume, the theoretical grounds from which we proceed-- create ‘meanings’ about bodies and ‘normalcy,’ and the importance of remaining ever vigilant and civically responsible in what we do or claim to do.

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Vaidehi Ramanathan is a professor of applied sociolinguistics in the department of linguistics at the University of California, Davis. Her previous publications include: Alzheimer Discourse: Some Sociolinguistics Dimensions (LEA 1997), The Politics of TESOL Education: Writing, Knowledge, critical pedagogy (2002, Routledge), and The English-Vernacular Divide: Postcolonial Language Politics and Practice (Multilingual Matters, 2005).