Extraordinary Bodies: Figuring Physical Disability in American Culture and Literature
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Book Overview
Extraordinary Bodies is a cornerstone text of disability studies, establishing the field upon its publication in 1997. Framing disability as a minority discourse rather than a medical one, the book added depth to oppressive narratives and revealed novel, liberatory ones. Through her incisive readings of such texts as Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin and Rebecca Harding Davis's Life in the Iron Mills, Rosemarie Garland-Thomson exposed the social forces driving representations of disability. She encouraged new ways of looking at texts and their depiction of the body and stretched the limits of what counted as a text, considering freak shows and other pop culture artifacts as reflections of community rites and fears. Garland-Thomson also elevated the status of African-American novels by Toni Morrison and Audre Lorde. Extraordinary Bodies laid the groundwork for an appreciation of disability culture and an inclusive new approach to the study of social marginalization.
Format:Paperback
Language:English
ISBN:0231183178
ISBN13:9780231183178
Release Date:March 2017
Publisher:Columbia University Press
Length:224 Pages
Weight:0.79 lbs.
Dimensions:0.5" x 5.9" x 8.9"
Grade Range:Postsecondary and higher
Customer Reviews
1 rating
Integrating disability theory and literary criticism
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 24 years ago
Rosemarie Garland Thomson has written a book that is groundbreaking and essential reading for anyone interested in the fields of disability theory, disability studies, and literary criticism. She has skillfully examined how the figure of the disabled body has been used in literature in different periods as a marker or boundary line for defining what the "normal" body is or should be. The disabled figure operates to displace anxiety from more "normal" folks, and in the process shows how what we consider to be normal functioning changes across historical periods and cultures. Thomson also compares the disabled figure to the cyborg, as both are figures that are not seen as "natural," and both are places/signifiers where we can then interrogate what the natural is, has been thought to be, and what it could include. This is an excellent book, and should not be missed.
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