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Article published In: Broken: Towards a vulnerability approach to Semiotic Landscape research
Edited by Máiréad Moriarty and Maida Kosatica
[Linguistic Landscape 11:2] 2025
► pp. 156–171

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Embodied vulnerability

Semiotic landscapes of suicide

 | University of Limerick
Published online: 6 January 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ll.24025.mor
Abstract
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, Tommaso & Erez Levon (2019). Israel as homotopia: Language, space, and vicious belonging. Language in Society, 48(4), 607–628. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; Moriarty, Máiréad (2019). Regimes of voice and visibility in the refugeescape: A semiotic landscape approach. Linguistic Landscape, 5(2), 142–159. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). Drawing on Butler, Judith (2004). Undoing Gender. New York: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar 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.
Resumen
Un movimiento reciente en los estudios del paisaje semiótico es examinar cómo aquellos que se encuentran en los márgenes de la sociedad contrarrestan dicha regulación utilizando el paisaje semiótico como una plataforma para promulgar regímenes de voz y agencia donde la atención académica ha comenzado a estudiar las representaciones espaciales de la vulnerabilidad y cómo los individuos alterados por estos procesos se defienden (véase, por ejemplo, Milani, Tommaso & Erez Levon (2019). Israel as homotopia: Language, space, and vicious belonging. Language in Society, 48(4), 607–628. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; Moriarty, Máiréad (2019). Regimes of voice and visibility in the refugeescape: A semiotic landscape approach. Linguistic Landscape, 5(2), 142–159. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). Basándose en el trabajo de Butler, Judith (2004). Undoing Gender. New York: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar sobre la vulnerabilidad corporal, el objetivo de este artículo es presentar la vulnerabilidad encarnada como una lente útil para examinar los paisajes semióticos de la vulnerabilidad. El objetivo de este artículo es presentar el paisaje cutáneo como un recurso para la vulnerabilidad encarnada a través del prisma de los jóvenes que sufren conductas suicidas en la República de Irlanda. A partir de imágenes de paisajes cutáneos y narrativas de tatuajes, este artículo mostrará cómo las personas que se involucran en comportamientos suicidas recurren a los tatuajes como una forma de encarnación de su vulnerabilidad que conduce a la curación y la comunicación.
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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Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Francis, Athanasia
2025. Unpacking vulnerability, agency, and resistance. Linguistic Landscape. An international journal 11:2 ► pp. 198 ff. DOI logo

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