(Un)triggering Anorexia. A Cognitive Literary Analysis of Lia “the Liar” in Wintergirls (2009)

Abstract

The importance of authorial intention has been debated extensively in literary studies. In cognitive literary studies, however, the effects books provoke in readers are of greater relevance. With an unreliable intradiegetic narrator, ambivalent about her denial of hunger, Wintergirls (2009), a US YA anorexia novel, embodies the spiraling network of lies that feeds this condition. This essay takes Wintergirls as a starting point to discuss the therapeutic or harmful effects of literature, over and above the intentions of the writer. Adopting a cognitive literary perspective, this essay proposes the concept of an "unreliable reader," and uses that concept to demonstrate that the novel has a self-triggering potential to reinforce anorexia. This is an unusual approach, inasmuch as it runs counter to previous positive literary criticism of Wintergirls, but it is a perspective in urgent need of reconsideration for the sake of disordered readers.