The Metanarrative of Blindness

The Metanarrative of Blindness PDF

Author: David Bolt

Publisher: University of Michigan Press

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 179

ISBN-13: 0472119060

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Sheds new light on literary representations of blindness from a disability studies perspective

Metanarratives of Disability

Metanarratives of Disability PDF

Author: David Bolt

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2021-05-26

Total Pages: 170

ISBN-13: 1000388433

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This book explores multiple metanarratives of disability to introduce and investigate the critical concept of assumed authority and the normative social order from which it derives. The book comprises 15 chapters developed across three parts and, informed by disability studies, is authored by those with research interests in the condition on which they focus as well as direct or intimate experiential knowledge. When out and about, many disabled people know only too well what it is to be erroneously told the error of our/their ways by non-disabled passers-by, assumed authority often cloaked in helpfulness. Showing that assumed authority is underpinned by a displacement of personal narratives in favour of overarching metanarratives of disability that find currency in a diverse multiplicity of cultural representations – ranging from literature to film, television, advertising, social media, comics, art, and music – this work discusses how this relates to a range of disabilities and chronic conditions, including blindness, autism, Down syndrome, diabetes, cancer, and HIV and AIDS. Metanarratives of Disability will be of interest to all scholars and students of disability studies, medical sociology, medical humanities, education studies, cultural studies, and health. 'offers a well-structured, accessible collection of disability narratives that foreground disabled voices' Journal of Literary and Cultural Disability Studies 16.1 (2022)

Finding Blindness

Finding Blindness PDF

Author: David Bolt

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2022-12-30

Total Pages: 208

ISBN-13: 1000821722

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This edited volume explores blindness as a construct with which we the contributors engage as part of our social existence and/or academic research. Irrespective of eye conditions, or the lack thereof, blindness is an understanding at which we have all come to arrive. On the way to this conceptual point, which is in any case unlikely ever to be fixed, we have passed or visited many formative cultural stations. In the terms of autocritical disability studies (i.e. an explicitly embodied development of critical disability studies), these cultural stations include key moments in education and training; the reflective pursuits of philosophy, aesthetics, and cultural theory; literary works such as autobiography, novels, short stories, drama, and poetry; visual texts ranging from photography to postage stamps; technological developments like television, computer applications, and social media; value systems defined by family and/or religion; and the social phenomenon of hate and war. Each chapter in this volume engages with two of these cultural stations; some ostensibly if not profoundly positive or indeed negative and some that contradict each other within and across chapters. This book will be of interest to all scholars and students of disability studies, sociology, education, and health.

Disability, Literature, Genre

Disability, Literature, Genre PDF

Author: Ria Cheyne

Publisher: Representations: Health, Disability, Culture and Society

Published: 2019-11-30

Total Pages: 216

ISBN-13: 1789620775

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Examining the intersection of disability and genre in popular works of horror, crime, science fiction, fantasy, and romance published since the late 1960s, Disability, Literature, Genre is a major contribution to both cultural disability studies and genre fiction studies. Drawing on recent work on affect and emotion, the book explores how disability makes us feel, and how those feelings shape interpersonal and fictional encounters. Written in a clear and accessible style, Disability, Literature, Genre offers a timely reflection on the rapidly growing body of scholarship on disability representation, as well as an innovative new theorisation of genre. By reconceptualising genre reading as an affective process, Ria Cheyne establishes genre fiction as a key site of investigation for disability studies. She argues that genre fiction's unique combination of affectivity and reflexivity makes it ideally suited to the production of reflexive representations of disability: representations which encourage the reader to reflect upon what they understand about disability, and potentially to rethink it. Examining the affective--and effective--power of disability representations in a wide range of popular genre fiction, this book will be essential reading for academics in disability studies, literary studies, popular culture studies, and the medical humanities.

Reviewing Blindness in French Fiction, 1789–2013

Reviewing Blindness in French Fiction, 1789–2013 PDF

Author: Hannah Thompson

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2017-08-18

Total Pages: 199

ISBN-13: 1137435119

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This book argues that the most interesting depictions of blindness in French fiction are those which call into question and ultimately undermine the prevailing myths and stereotypes of blindness which dominate Western thought. Rather than seeing blindness as an affliction, a tragedy or even a fate worse than death, the authors examined in this study celebrate blindness for its own sake. For them it is a powerful artistic and creative force which offers new and surprising ways of describing, and relating to, reality. Canonical and lesser-known novels from a range of genres, including the roman noir, science fiction, auto-fiction and realism are analyzed in detail to show how the presence of blind characters invites the reader to abandon his or her traditional reliance on the sense of sight and engage with the world in sensual, and hitherto unexpected, ways. This book challenges everything we thought we knew about blindness and invites us to revel in the pleasures and perils of reading blind.

Metanarratives of Disability

Metanarratives of Disability PDF

Author: David Bolt

Publisher: Autocritical Disability Studies

Published: 2021

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13: 9780367523190

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This book explores multiple metanarratives of disability to introduce and investigate the critical concept of assumed authority and the normative social order from which it derives. The book comprises 15 chapters developed across three parts and, informed by disability studies, is authored by those with research interests in the condition on which they focus as well as direct or intimate experiential knowledge. When out and about, many disabled people know only too well what it is to be erroneously told the error of our/their ways by non-disabled passers-by, assumed authority often cloaked in helpfulness. Showing that assumed authority is underpinned by a displacement of personal narratives in favour of overarching metanarratives of disability that find currency in a diverse multiplicity of cultural representations - ranging from literature to film, television, advertising, social media, comics, art, and music - this work discusses how this relates to a range of disabilities and chronic conditions, including blindness, autism, Down syndrome, diabetes, cancer, and HIV and AIDS. Metanarratives of Disability will be of interest to all scholars and students of disability studies, medical sociology, medical humanities, education studies, cultural studies, and health.

Disability Duplicity and the Formative Cultural Identity Politics of Generation X

Disability Duplicity and the Formative Cultural Identity Politics of Generation X PDF

Author: David Bolt

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-09-21

Total Pages: 122

ISBN-13: 1000934187

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Disability is history and futurity, culture and society, practice and theory, work and play, an immense desire for life by which body and mind are dragged kicking and screaming into each and every new day. Using autocritical discourse analysis, a new hybrid research method that combines aspects of the established methods of critical discourse analysis (CDA) and autoethnography, this book explores the formative cultural identity politics of disability via cultural stations of UK popular culture. These cultural stations include action figures, children’s books, television miniseries, comics, comedy films, teenage drama and sitcoms, the punk rock movement, and alternative comedy. Although the cultural stations range from toys and comics to aggressive music and chaotic sitcoms, all are considered with a focus on the language and tropes of disability. Indeed, most of the works are not remembered as portrayals of disability but the book’s analysis reveals flash if not fleeting representations that, when centralised, clarify patterns of duplicity. Via the language of power, and the power of language, all these texts are found to have contributed to the formative cultural identity politics of disability. It will be of interest to all scholars and students of disability studies, sociology, toy studies, comic studies, humour studies, television studies, popular music studies, gender studies, literary studies, and cultural studies.

Beyond Sketches of Spain

Beyond Sketches of Spain PDF

Author: Benjamin Fraser

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2022

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 0197549284

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"At the same time that this chapter continues to introduce readers to Tete Montoliu's life, musical work, and impact, it also challenges certain transnational assumptions regarding Spanish jazz. It is important to attend to ways in which the listening practices of mid-twentieth-century Anglophone audiences were shaped by the popular jazz market. In particular, it is by dispensing with misrepresentations of the connection between jazz and flamenco that readers can move beyond mere sketches of Spain and begin to appreciate the full complexity of Iberian jazz. This effort is further supported by Montoliu's own strong opinion that "Mezclar flamenco con el jazz es como mezclar las almejas con el chocolate. Es una mezcla imposible de digerir" [Mixing flamenco with jazz is like mixing clams with chocolate. It is a mixture that is impossible to digest"--

Sexy Like Us

Sexy Like Us PDF

Author: Teresa Milbrodt

Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi

Published: 2022-07-27

Total Pages: 276

ISBN-13: 1496838939

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Sexy Like Us: Disability, Humor, and Sexuality takes a humorous, intimate approach to disability through the stories, jokes, performances, and other creative expressions of people with disabilities. Author Teresa Milbrodt explores why individuals can laugh at their leglessness, find stoma bags sexual, discover intimacy in scars, and flaunt their fragility in ways both hilarious and serious. Their creative and comic acts crash, collide, and collaborate with perceptions of disability in literature and dominant culture, allowing people with disabilities to shape political disability identity and disability pride, call attention to social inequalities, and poke back at ableist cultural norms. This book also discusses how the ambivalent nature of comedy has led to debates within disability communities about when it is acceptable to joke, who has permission to joke, and which jokes should be used inside and outside a community’s inner circle. Joking may be difficult when considering aspects of disability that involve physical or emotional pain and struggles to adapt to new forms of embodiment. At the same time, people with disabilities can use humor to expand the definitions of disability and sexuality. They can help others with disabilities assert themselves as sexy and sexual. And they can question social norms and stigmas around bodies in ways that open up journeys of being, not just for individuals who consider themselves disabled, but for all people.

Discourses on Disability

Discourses on Disability PDF

Author: Anju Sosan George

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2023-03-31

Total Pages: 244

ISBN-13: 1527501450

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Discourses on Disability bridges academic and personal voices from India to address the diverse and fluid conversations on disability. It seeks to critically engage with the concept of being dis/abled, attempting to deconstruct ableism while advocating for inclusive politics. Narratives from people with bipolar disorder, autism, and locomotor disabilities serve to examine how it feels to exist in a world conditioned by deep-seated cultural taboos about disability. The chapters in this book show how India still has a systemic silence about people with disabilities.