Literature & Medicine (381-0-20)
Topic
Intro to Disability Studies in Literature
Instructors
Noah Chaskin
Meeting Info
Parkes Hall 223: Tues, Thurs 9:30AM - 10:50AM
Overview of class
The field of disability studies grew out of the rights-based activism that led, in the United States, to the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990. Yet, as disability theorists have observed, "western" literature has long been obsessed with disability as metaphor, character trait, and plot device. This course will serve as an introduction to the application of disability studies in literature. We will explore a range of questions: how do we approach the representation of disability in texts by non-disabled authors? How do we differentiate (or should we?) between disability and chronic illness, or between physical and mental disabilities? Can literary representation operate as activism? How do we parse the gap between disability as metaphor and lived experience? What does literature offer disability studies, and why should disability studies be a core method for studying literature? This is a methods class, and readings will be divided between theoretical texts and primary sources. Students will learn to grapple with complex sociocultural and literary analysis, as well as to make space for their own primary source readings.
Teaching Method
Discussion, collaborative reading.
Evaluation Method
Participation, short writing exercises.
Class Materials (Required)
Excerpts from early sources including Sarah Scott's Millennium Hall (1760) and Henry Mackenzie's The Man of Feeling (1771). In addition, we will read from the theoretical work of Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, Therà Alyce Pickens, Robert McRuer, Alison Kafer, and Jasbir Puar, and a selection of contemporary writing on illness and disability, including authors like Audre Lorde, Eula Biss, and Esmé Weijun Wang.
Texts Will Be Available At: All texts will be available on Canvas.
Class Attributes
Advanced Expression
Literature and Arts Foundational Discipline
Literature & Fine Arts Distro Area