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Claudia Müller (Dresden):
"Fat and Poor: The Discursive Intersection of Poverty and Obesity
and the Image of the Fat Poor in Sapphire's Push"
Abstract
In my presentation I will analyze the stereotypical image of the Fat Poor in contemporary US-American literature and culture; in particular I will do a close reading of Sapphire's novel Push (1996) with a focus on the representation of the poor. First, I will briefly explain the image of the Fat Poor in general; second, I will analyze the intersection of the discourses on poverty and on obesity; and third, I will do a reading of Push, to show how the image of the Fat Poor functions in a specific (con)text.
At its core, the image of the Fat Poor is the idea of a person being both poor and obese and thus being marginalized and othered in two major cultural categories of identity: class and body. In the image of the Fat Poor several negatively connoted attributes and associations related to poverty and obesity (such as laziness, immobility, resignation, over-consumption without production, or lack of self-discipline) merge and support the stereotype's overall logic and its popularity. Combining poverty and obesity in one strong verbal and visual stereotype, obesity almost functions as a bodily marker of poverty in the image of the Fat Poor.
In my reading of Push, I will focus on two aspects. First, I will show how the novel's major characters (the protagonist Precious and her mother Mary) embody the stereotype of the Fat Poor Welfare Mother, in which the image of the Fat Poor merges with older stereotypes of the Welfare Mother and the Welfare Queen. Second, I will trace Precious' success story—a transition from home, mother, food, and forced consumption to school, teacher, text, and creative production, which is a journey meeting the expectations inherent in the image of the Fat Poor—and analyze the novel's potential as critique of such a success narrative.
At its core, the image of the Fat Poor is the idea of a person being both poor and obese and thus being marginalized and othered in two major cultural categories of identity: class and body. In the image of the Fat Poor several negatively connoted attributes and associations related to poverty and obesity (such as laziness, immobility, resignation, over-consumption without production, or lack of self-discipline) merge and support the stereotype's overall logic and its popularity. Combining poverty and obesity in one strong verbal and visual stereotype, obesity almost functions as a bodily marker of poverty in the image of the Fat Poor.
In my reading of Push, I will focus on two aspects. First, I will show how the novel's major characters (the protagonist Precious and her mother Mary) embody the stereotype of the Fat Poor Welfare Mother, in which the image of the Fat Poor merges with older stereotypes of the Welfare Mother and the Welfare Queen. Second, I will trace Precious' success story—a transition from home, mother, food, and forced consumption to school, teacher, text, and creative production, which is a journey meeting the expectations inherent in the image of the Fat Poor—and analyze the novel's potential as critique of such a success narrative.
Bio
I studied American Studies, Journalism Studies, and Political Sciences at the University of Leipzig and graduated with my Magister thesis on Fistfighting in Film: The Boxing Movie as an Ideological Spectacle and Its Deconstruction of Gender, Ethnicities and Class Identities in 2008. I am working on my dissertation project on The Image of the Fat Poor in Contemporary American Literature and Culture (working title) at the Institute of English and American Studies at the TU Dresden since 2011. Currently, I am working on my first of three main chapters of my dissertation, a reading of the novel Push (1996) and its movie adaption Precious (2009), after having developed a general thesis and research question, choosing most of my primary sources, looking into different theoretical and methodological approaches, and planning and structuring my project accordingly.
My primary research interests are related to poverty, class, bodies, obesity, violence, popular culture, movies, boxing, food. I am interested in literary critical poverty studies, discourse analysis, intersectionality, fat studies, and New Historicist approaches applied to contemporary texts.
My primary research interests are related to poverty, class, bodies, obesity, violence, popular culture, movies, boxing, food. I am interested in literary critical poverty studies, discourse analysis, intersectionality, fat studies, and New Historicist approaches applied to contemporary texts.