Studies of the relationships among literature, culture, and "disability." The course may range broadly or concentrate on one historical period, genre, or issue.

From the blind poet to the fat detective to the “twisted” villain, literature often foregrounds bodily difference as an exceptional condition. What are the stakes and effects of literature’s interest in the exception—and in implied or engendered norms? What correspondences might there between different kinds of the atypical: between “beauty” and “deformity” (Adam calls Eve a “fair defect” in Paradise Lost), poetry and disfluency, over- and under-achievement? To address these and other questions, we’ll read a selection of texts that work at once to represent disability and to "crip" norms of representation. We’ll also consider disability in relation to disablement: the effects of impaired and impairing environments on the capacity to flourish. Assignments will include two essays, a group or individual presentation project, and regular, thoughtful discussion posts. There will be no final exam, but regular attendance and participation are required. This is a core course for the disability studies minor. See also https://english.berkeley.edu/courses/7702

Repeat Rules

Course is not repeatable for credit.

Requirements class fulfills