Full Description
Popular media is a powerful mirror and maker of meaning around suicide.
This book brings together scholars from across disciplines to examine how suicide is mythologised, politicised and challenged across film, TV, young adult literature, digital platforms, online communities, and more. From news coverage of celebrity suicide to social media interventions with at-risk youth, this wide-ranging collection explores suicide's intersections with class, gender, chronic illness and cultural identity.
Bridging academic analysis and lived realities, this volume offers vital tools for understanding, teaching and reimagining how suicide circulates in the stories we consume and create.
Contents
Introduction - M. F. Alvarez, Warren J. Bareiss, Jolane Flanigan
1. "Buried in the Open Fields": Early Modern Suicide and the Case of Ofelia - Janet Clare
2. "To Live Deliberately": Agency and Locus of Control in 'Dead Poets Society' - Brennan Thomas
3. The Complexities of the Documentary 'The Bridge' as Heterotopia - Alessandra Seggi
4. "I (Don't) Want to Kill Myself": Tensions Between Suicidal Hope and Joyful Despair in HBO's 'The Leftovers' - Adam Lauver
5. Pain Advocates: Reimagining Suicide Narratives from the Perspectives of Chronic Pain Patients - Elizabeth Spradley and R. Tyler Spradley
6. Celebrity Suicide as Opportunity for Public Education: Reference to Professional Medical Sources and Themes in U.S. Press Coverage Following the Suicide of CNN Food Expert, Anthony Bourdain - Warren J. Bareiss
7. Media Representations of Farmer Suicide as Social Drama: From Breach to Crisis to Redressive Action - Jolane Flanigan
8. Communicating About Suicide on Social Media: A Proposal for How Social Media Interventions Could Help Reduce Risks of Suicide Among Transgender, Non-binary, and Gender Diverse (TNG) Youth - Gary L. Kreps, Farrokh Alem, Suzanne Carmack, David Gustafson, Judith Jacobson, Yan Leykin, Priya Nambisan, Jack D. Simons, John Strang, and Rediet Woldeselassie
9. Suicide Goes Public: Suicide Prevention/Education and Grief Literacy in the Young Adult Literature Section of the Public Library - Carla Sofka
10. Pop Culture as Pedagogy: Breaking the Silence on Suicide in the Undergraduate Classroom - M. F. Alvarez
