The Grammar of Leprosy: Temporal Politics and the Impossible Subject

This research article critically interrogates the implications and unintended consequences of the World Health Organization’s purported elimination of leprosy as a public health problem. I explore how leprosy has been portrayed (for nearly a century) as something from the past, recalcitrantly linger...

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Autor principal:	Laura A. Meek
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	University of Edinburgh Library 2021
Materias:	leprosy tanzania disease elimination temporal politics grammar Anthropology GN1-890 Medicine (General) R5-920
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/afd4e53b13564328afe23e72f05e19e0
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:afd4e53b13564328afe23e72f05e19e02021-11-08T12:34:28ZThe Grammar of Leprosy: Temporal Politics and the Impossible Subject2405-691X10.17157/mat.8.3.5525https://doaj.org/article/afd4e53b13564328afe23e72f05e19e02021-09-01T00:00:00Zhttp://www.medanthrotheory.org/article/view/5525https://doaj.org/toc/2405-691XThis research article critically interrogates the implications and unintended consequences of the World Health Organization’s purported elimination of leprosy as a public health problem. I explore how leprosy has been portrayed (for nearly a century) as something from the past, recalcitrantly lingering on into the present, but surely about to be gone—a temporal framing I call the ‘grammar of leprosy’. I recount the experiences of Daniel, my interlocutor in Tanzania, whose existence became a problem for his doctors. This problem they ultimately resolved by fabricating negative test results in order to record what they already knew: leprosy had been eliminated. I also analyse how researchers working for Novartis (the supplier of leprosy’s cure) continue to push for an always imminent ‘elimination’, while field researchers repeatedly caution about the potential problems of this approach. Finally, I reveal how the grammar of leprosy operates through a complex set of temporal politics, pulling into its orbit and being enabled by multiple interwoven temporalities. I conclude that—due to this grammar, the impossible subjects it produces, and the temporal politics through which it operates—leprosy elimination campaigns may have dire consequences for the lives of people with leprosy today, impeding rather than enabling treatment.Laura A. MeekUniversity of Edinburgh Libraryarticleleprosytanzaniadisease eliminationtemporal politicsgrammarAnthropologyGN1-890Medicine (General)R5-920ENMedicine Anthropology Theory, Vol 8, Iss 3, Pp 1-26 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	leprosy tanzania disease elimination temporal politics grammar Anthropology GN1-890 Medicine (General) R5-920
spellingShingle	leprosy tanzania disease elimination temporal politics grammar Anthropology GN1-890 Medicine (General) R5-920 Laura A. Meek The Grammar of Leprosy: Temporal Politics and the Impossible Subject
description	This research article critically interrogates the implications and unintended consequences of the World Health Organization’s purported elimination of leprosy as a public health problem. I explore how leprosy has been portrayed (for nearly a century) as something from the past, recalcitrantly lingering on into the present, but surely about to be gone—a temporal framing I call the ‘grammar of leprosy’. I recount the experiences of Daniel, my interlocutor in Tanzania, whose existence became a problem for his doctors. This problem they ultimately resolved by fabricating negative test results in order to record what they already knew: leprosy had been eliminated. I also analyse how researchers working for Novartis (the supplier of leprosy’s cure) continue to push for an always imminent ‘elimination’, while field researchers repeatedly caution about the potential problems of this approach. Finally, I reveal how the grammar of leprosy operates through a complex set of temporal politics, pulling into its orbit and being enabled by multiple interwoven temporalities. I conclude that—due to this grammar, the impossible subjects it produces, and the temporal politics through which it operates—leprosy elimination campaigns may have dire consequences for the lives of people with leprosy today, impeding rather than enabling treatment.
format	article
author	Laura A. Meek
author_facet	Laura A. Meek
author_sort	Laura A. Meek
title	The Grammar of Leprosy: Temporal Politics and the Impossible Subject
title_short	The Grammar of Leprosy: Temporal Politics and the Impossible Subject
title_full	The Grammar of Leprosy: Temporal Politics and the Impossible Subject
title_fullStr	The Grammar of Leprosy: Temporal Politics and the Impossible Subject
title_full_unstemmed	The Grammar of Leprosy: Temporal Politics and the Impossible Subject
title_sort	grammar of leprosy: temporal politics and the impossible subject
publisher	University of Edinburgh Library
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/afd4e53b13564328afe23e72f05e19e0
work_keys_str_mv	AT lauraameek thegrammarofleprosytemporalpoliticsandtheimpossiblesubject AT lauraameek grammarofleprosytemporalpoliticsandtheimpossiblesubject
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The Grammar of Leprosy: Temporal Politics and the Impossible Subject

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