Citation

Testoni I, Parise G, Zamperini A, Visintin EP, Toniolo E, Vicentini S, De Leo D. Hum. Aff. 2016; 26(2): 153-166.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, Department of Social and Biological Communication, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Publisher Walter de Gruyter)

DOI

10.1515/humaff-2016-0016

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This study analyzes the "sick-lit" narrative phenomenon, a story writing genre rooted in self-harm and suicide, which seems to be gaining remarkable popularity amongst adolescents. This success is a symptom of young people's need to address the issue of death. The qualitative research was composed of two parts: the first explored the ambivalent representation of sick-lit on the internet, where two opposing factions argue about its educative usefulness vs. its potentially dangerous copycat effect. The second part investigated six novels and their representations of self-harm, death, sufferance and suicide. The analysis confuted the idea that sick-lit may be a positive instrument for making adolescents aware of mortality and showed the need to transform the Werther risk effect into the Papageno possibility by exploring the content of these books with adolescents in death education courses. © Institute for Research in Social Communication, Slovak Academy of Sciences.

Language: en

Keywords

Suicide prevention; Werther effect; Papageno effect; Death education; Sick-lit