ABSTRACT
This chapter gravitates between the inside and outside of the hungering body and the modalities of the passage between them. The narrative of anorexia is that of a sensual link forged through the act of anxiety which lies behind the anorexic subject's performance; a performance, which is a matter of life or death. The physical laws of nature that govern inanition provide for a subtle set of gradations in the deterioration of the faster's body. The challenge for the anorexic subject is to remain an object of empathy for his or her entourage throughout the disembodiment proper to the condition. The anorectic's wasting body begins to emulate that of the corpse he or she is harbouring: as the elastic limit of empathy is constantly tested by the disfiguring fast, the anorexic subject risks bringing down the whole complex construction of suspended grief and living death.
