Date of Thesis

Spring 2026

Description

This thesis examines the intersection between young adult fiction and anorexia nervosa through the lens of Alexandra Ballard’s 2017 novel, What I Lost. The fictional space of the novel interacts with the larger trends of American culture and society, forming a connection between the external world and the protagonist’s personal experience with anorexia nervosa. Specifically, this thesis explores three external forces–the fashion industry, the transmission of generational ideals and habits, and the institutional recovery center–that are mapped onto the site of the female body, resulting in the expression of anorexia nervosa. The following chapters detail each external influence, respectively, suggesting that women’s bodies are policed or surveilled by external anxieties that regulate women’s adherence to the slender ideal. The protagonist, therefore, remains influenced by these inevitable forces that complicate and overtake her self-expression. This analysis positions young adult fiction as an avenue for representation, offering the genre as a space for the protagonist to share her individual experience, and ultimately, find a path to healing. Ultimately, the project recognizes the novel’s first-person narration as an all-encompassing element that contributes to the protagonist’s healing, moving away from the traditional pathologization of eating disorders, and instead, framing literature as an entry into understanding the fusion between culture and the conception of the female body.

Keywords

anorexia nervosa, eating disorder(s), young adult fiction, pathologization, Michel Foucault, Susan Bordo

Access Type

Honors Thesis

Degree Type

Bachelor of Arts

Major

English- Literary Studies

Second Major

Italian Studies

First Advisor

Dr. Elena Machado

Second Advisor

Dr. Michael Drexler

Third Advisor

Dr. Mehmet Dosemeci

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