123042 PS Proseminar Literature (2013W)

In the last two decades “disability studies” has emerged as a new field of research in literary studies thanks to major publications such as Ato Quayson’s Aesthetic Nervousness: Disability and the Crisis of Representation, The Journal of Literary and Cultural Disability Studies as well as The Disability Studies Reader published by Routledge in 2006. In this course we will discuss poems, novels and a play in which disability (cognitive, emotional and physical) features prominently. In the course of literary history, disabled characters have functioned as symbols of evil, monsters, criminals as well as heroes. More recently, writers have portrayed disabled characters to undermine mainstream discursive constructions of “normalcy” in society. In postcolonial/ developing countries, disability gets further complicated by poverty and is directly linked to brutal political systems which increasingly use the body as an instrument to fuel or resolve social conflicts. As Quayson suggests, disability turns into an “excessive sign” that requires and demands interpretation. Significantly, disability cannot be considered as the tragic predicament of a single individual but mirrors the larger cultural and infrastructural environment in which it is embedded. After an introductory discussion on different forms of disability in various contexts, students will look at disability as a literary device and at the “aesthetic nervousness” triggered by the representation of impaired characters in fiction.