170542 UE The Diseases of the Society, the Society of the Diseases. (2022W)

Lockdowns, self-isolation, depression. At least since the ongoing pandemic and its direct ramifications, most people have had to come to terms not just with the interdependences between diseases and societal structures, but also discursivity of diseases themselves in (sub)cultures and repercussions these have for the whole society. From the “whuan flu” to the “Swedish model“, societal discussions surrounding diseases and the political decisions have significant consequences for the whole population – although, according to one’s own position in society one’s (systemic and bodily) vulnerability might vary considerably. Ultimately, one cannot dismiss the material actuality of diseases and degrees of suffering for anyone fallen sick, but, due to hegemonic understandings, any life with diseases, disability, trauma etc. is always caught in a powerful network of discourses, cultural constructions, and structural hierarchies.
Therefore, especially in times like these, it is highest urgency to discuss and analyse critically images and narratives of dis/ability in media. In this course, we will look at selected fields of disability studies, crip theory, trauma theory, and age studies and the (often overlooked) interdependencies between them. This means that, on the one hand, we will discuss dominant narratives and images in media from an intersectional point of view (esp. gender, sexuality, race, class): Why is “disability” an essential category of power? In what ways does the filmic fixation on the „curative time” in modern US-American war movies create immense pressure on people suffering from PTSD? Why do we focus on “fit” old action heroes and their embodied youthfulness? What does it mean when we do not see any people with impairments in the science fiction genre? On the other hand, we will also look at the subversive potential brought to the cultural table especially by “crip-” and other artists: In what way can we consider pornography with impaired actors*actresses to be political? What cultural conventions are broken by the depiction of sexuality in old age (esp. in the context of intragenerational relationships)? In what way does “crip time” and similar concepts help us to queer (or “to crip”) neoliberal notions of time)? We will approach essential movies and other medial depiction with these and similar questions to discuss critically powerful structures behind alleged naturalness of diseases, dis/abilities, trauma and more.