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, bioethics, 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 as well as major essays and documents in the field of disability studies. Readings may include: Helen Keller, The Story of My Life; Carson McCullers, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter;  Audre Lorde, The Cancer Journals; Ken Kesey, One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest; Kenzaburo Oe, A Personal Matter; Simi Linton, My Body Politic; Katherine Dunn, Geek Love; David B., Epileptic; Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go; Eli Clare, Exile and Pride; Terry Galloway, Mean Little Deaf Queer as well as work by Lennard Davis, Rosemarie Garland Thomson, Tobin Siebers, Susan Schweik, David Mitchell and Sharon Snyder, and others.

Satisfies the Group IV:  Humanities and Social Sciences General Education Requirement.

TA Assignments:

Aundeah Kearney  FBH 319

Don James McLaughlin  FBH 240

Omari Weekes  FBH 312