ENGL 40195 - The Literature of Disability

Institution:

University of Notre Dame

Subject:

English

Description:

"This new critical perspective [Disability Studies] conceptualizes disability as a representational system rather than a medical problem, a discursive construction rather than a personal misfortune or a bodily flaw, and a subject appropriate for wide-ranging cultural analysis within the humanities instead of an applied field within medicine, rehabilitation, or social work. Such an approach focuses its analysis, then, on how disability is imagined, specifically on the figures and narratives that comprise the cultural context in which we know ourselves and one another." - Rosemarie Garland Thomson, "The Beauty and the Freak," p. 181. What is disability? What does it mean to be considered disabled? What is the relationship of disability to what is thought to be non-disabled, or "normal?" In this course, we will consider writings and films about disability and individuals labeled disabled. Our readings will include fiction and nonfiction works about people with various physical and cognitive disabilities, including blindness, multiple sclerosis, autism, and others. We will explore the ways in which the disabled have been represented in such works, and the rhetorical resources for constructing "disability" in literature, non-fiction, and film. We will consider the ways in which writers considered disabled write about themselves, telling their own stories, and the ways in which these writings may complicate, subvert, or defy conventional representations of the disabled. In exploring these and related issues, we will consider the implications of disability for individuals and society.

Credits:

3.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.nd.edu

Phone Number:

(574) 631-5000

Regional Accreditation:

North Central Association of Colleges and Schools

Calendar System:

Semester

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