Abstract
Around the world, scholarship concerning language studies has used general social categories, such as class, gender and ethnicity, to generate a great number of investigations which have benefited different sectors of society. However, these categories simply assume that users of the language are capable of communicating in a wide variety of contexts. What about those who are unable to communicate because of health conditions or ailments? Further, is our understanding of disease or ailments simply a product of a ‘fair description’ of language produced by specialists? More importantly, how do people who suffer from health conditions interpret the conceptions of society regarding disease and disability?
These questions are tackled in Ramanathan’s latest book on bodies and language. The text is a critical account of the problem of discourses of disease and normalcy and its implications for our work as language scholars. Similar to other works that take a critical stance on language studies, this book presents a self-reflexive critique on our understanding of the nature of disability from the perspective of those who are afflicted with such conditions.
Chapter 1 sets the foundation for the whole work as Ramanathan draws important insights from Foucault and Merleau-Ponty on the theoretical underpinnings of the discursive construction of the body through language. The author expands our understanding of disability and disease in the context of citizenship and established choices shaped by society.
In Chapter 2, she uses metaprescriptive utterances in problematizing image construction of cancer, amputation and prosthesis. This chapter departs from the typical objective, linguistic descriptions of the effects of these conditions on the afflicted to a more personal, ideological tone. Specifically, by rationalizing experiences of the afflicted, Ramanathan argues that language is powerful in providing/limiting spaces for people to articulate their resistance towards the dehumanizing perceptions of society on disease.
Shifting from the physicality of disease to a more mentalistic perspective, Chapter 3 delves into the voicing and articulations of those afflicted with Alzheimer’s disease. Interestingly, through Derrida’s conception of repetition, signs and intentions, Ramanathan establishes the importance of merging narratives produced by those afflicted, relatives and caregivers in order to develop a semblance of coherence in these texts.
Chapter 4 explores the means of engagement of people with chronic ailments (diabetes, epilepsy and body breakdowns) concerning their condition. Employing a thematic analysis, the chapter proceeds with presenting key categories that identify strategies that allow people to ‘rewrite’ conceptions of the body amidst these conditions.
In Chapter 5, the author tackles the complexities associated with communication among people with autism and partial hearing. Applying Lacanian notions of the imaginary, this chapter reveals how communicative intentions are unraveled. Noteworthy here is the emphasis on the absence of clear communicative acts that shape our own (re)actions towards these people with special conditions.
Chapter 6, which appears to be an extension of Chapter 3 and might better have been placed after it, presents a critique of existing constraints in psycholinguistic research concerning memory and narrative coherence among people with Alzheimer’s disease. Following a Derridean approach in interpreting life histories of patients, the author argues for a more reflexive and humanistic direction towards analyzing data which leads to the development of counter-narratives.
In Chapter 7, Ramanathan sums up the work by emphasizing the importance of the production and reception of meaning construction surrounding discourse and disability. More importantly, she identifies important directions for future researchers in expanding scholarship on language and disease and disability.
In my opinion, this work stands out as a sincere attempt to humanize the role of language in conceptualizing our notions of (ab)normal in society. Given the rich accounts of those afflicted with health conditions, Ramanathan succeeds in identifying theoretical and methodological tensions that may serve as rich areas for contestation and exploration. More importantly, the work allows scholars to find ways to genuinely create possibilities by looking at how discourses shape and often marginalize our understandings of the social dimensions of disease and disability. Indeed, this book is an exemplary work that uses applied sociolinguistics in achieving transformative ends.