Full Description
In this book, Tanisha Spratt offers an original and much-needed exploration of whose lives society deems grievable and why. In 2020, the global fight against COVID-19, coupled with the resurgence of Black Lives Matter (BLM) following the death of George Floyd, brought into stark clarity what many scholars and activists have long argued - that when it comes to matters of sickness and health/ life and death some lives matter and others do not. By developing Judith Butler's theory of grievability to include contemporary discussions of blame, risk, death and dying when it comes to racial disparities in health and mortality rates, Spratt calls in contemporary and historical case studies including that of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement, the war in Ukraine, the Covid-19 pandemic and Shamima Begum. From immigration and prison reform, medical ethics, health behaviours, and citizenship denial, Spratt demonstrates how, under neoliberalism, some lives are more valuable than others - and how racist, sexist and homophobic perceptions of value, risk and vulnerability deem some deaths less worthy of grief than others.
Contents
Acknowledgements
Preface: A Note to the Reader
Introduction: Conceptualising grievable life
Conceptualising public responses to 'poor health behaviours:' Trauma,
shame and 'obesity' in Roxane Gay's Hunger: A Memoir of (my) Body
Ungrievability and mass incarceration: The tragic death of Kalief Browder
Understanding Black lives as grievable Lives: Black Lives Matter and the
killing of George Floyd
Ungrievability unveiled: 'jihadi brides' and the case of Shamima Begum
Child death, visual consumption, and grievability politics: Remembering
Alan Kurdi
Conclusion: Imagining grievable futures
Bibliography
Index
