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Linguistic Landscape: Online-First Articles

Embodied vulnerability

Semiotic landscapes of suicide

 | University of Limerick
A recent move in semiotic landscape studies is to examine how those placed on the margins of society counteract such regulation by using the semiotic landscape as a platform to enact regimes of voice and agency where scholarly attention has begun to study the spatial representations of vulnerability and how individuals othered by these processes fight back (see for example Milani & Levron, 2019; Moriarty, 2019). Drawing on Butler’s (2004) work on corporeal vulnerability, the aim of this paper is to put forward embodied vulnerability as a useful lens for examining semiotic landscapes of vulnerability. The aim of this paper is to put forward skinscape as a resource for embodied vulnerability through the prism of youth suffering from suicidal behaviour in the Republic of Ireland. In drawing on a skinscape images and tattoo narratives, this paper will show how those engaging in suicidal behaviours draw on tattoos as a form of embodiment of their vulnerability that leads to healing and comfort.
Keywords: Embodied vulnerability, semiotic landscapes, suicide, youth mental health
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.A semiotic landscape approach to the study of suicide
  • 3.Embodied vulnerability and semiotic landscapes of suicide
  • 4.Suicide in the Republic of Ireland
  • 5.An SL approach to suicide: The data
  • 6.Embodied vulnerability and tattoo narratives
    • 6.1Embodied vulnerability as agency
    • 6.2Embodied vulnerability as community
    • 6.3Embodied vulnerability as redemption
  • 7.Discussion
  • 8.Conclusion
  • References
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