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

This course has the twin goals of introducing students to critical disability studies and exploring literary representations of bodily and cognitive difference. Focusing on the key terms of “ability” and “disability” in relation to questions of “merit,” value, and productivity, we’ll consider how disability intersects with other categories of human identity (race, class, gender, sexuality), and with categories of activity like work and play. Considering “disability” as a culturally constructed category, we’ll explore the stakes and effects of literature’s interest in “exceptional” or “extraordinary” bodies and minds, from the blind poet to the fat detective and the ‘twisted’ or ‘deformed’ villain. What correspondences might there between different kinds of the atypical: between blindness and insight, beauty and deformity, poetry and disfluency? We’ll learn through reading, viewing, and/or listening to a selection of works that may explore disability and "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. It satisfies the "Literatures in English" requirement for the English major.

Repeat Rules

Course is not repeatable for credit.

Requirements class fulfills