Department of English

This course will introduce students to key questions in the field of disability studies, including representation, stigma, access, civil rights, health care, institutionalization, employment, illness and disability, and conceptions of the human. We will also consider the ways that disability is inflected by other dimensions of identity including race, class, gender, and sexuality. Our focus will be on disability and literature, with attention to questions of framing and narrative strategy. Over the course of the semester we will read a range of twentieth-century novels, memoirs, and autobiographies. Readings may include: Helen Keller, The Story of My Life; Carson McCullers, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter; Katherine Butler Hathaway, The Little Locksmith; Audre Lorde, The Cancer Journals; Ken Kesey, One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest; William Styron, Darkness Visible; Simi Linton, My Body Politic; Katherine Dunn, Geek Love; Eli Clare, Exile and Pride; Terry Galloway, Mean Little Deaf Queer.