Self-Harm and the Pursuit of Control in Shadowhunters Fan Fiction

• Main Author: Bohman, Malin
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Umeå universitet, Institutionen för språkstudier 2019
• Subjects: mental health; loss of control; depression; anxiety; disability narrative; General Literature Studies; Litteraturvetenskap
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-167420

Five fan fictions based on the TV-series Shadowhunters are used to analyze the self-harming behaviors of the character Alec Lightwood, as a response to losing, and a method of regaining, control. In addition, this paper explores self-harm in relation to upbringing and culture, self-punishment, and the mental health disorders depression and anxiety. Furthermore, it employs a disability narrative perspective and utilizes two four-stage systems proposed by disability narrative theorist David A. Karp—the illness identity career and the process of adaptations—in order to demonstrate the similarities and differences between fictional and nonfictional disability narratives. The engagement in self-harm is posited to be driven by a desire to regain control, which inadvertently ends up providing the opposite: an increased loss of control, and a hindrance for recovery.