Narrative Prosthesis

by Mitchell, David T.

• ISBN13: 9780472067480
• ISBN10: 0472067486
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-01-09
• Publisher: Univ of Michigan Pr

Summary

Narrative Prosthesis: Disability and the Dependencies of Discoursedevelops a narrative theory of the pervasive use of disability as a device of characterization in literature and film. It argues that, while other marginalized identities have suffered cultural exclusion due to a dearth of images reflecting their experience, the marginality of disabled people has occurred in the midst of the perpetual circulation of images of disability in print and visual media. The manuscript's six chapters offer comparative readings of key texts in the history of disability representation, including the tin soldier and lame Oedipus, Montaigne's "infinities of forms" and Nietzsche's "higher men," the performance history of Shakespeare'sRichard III,Melville's Captain Ahab, the small town grotesques of Sherwood Anderson'sWinesburg, Ohioand Katherine Dunn's self-induced freaks inGeek Love. David T. Mitchell is Associate Professor of Literature and Cultural Studies, Northern Michigan University. Sharon L. Snyder is Assistant Professor of Film and Literature, Northern Michigan University.

Table of Contents

Preface Mapping Identity: Disability and Other ``Marked'' Bodies	ix
Introduction Disability as Narrative Supplement	1	(14)
Representation and Its Discontents: The Uneasy Home of Disability in Literature and Film	15	(32)
Narrative Prosthesis and the Materiality of Metaphor	47	(18)
Montaigne's ``Infinities of Formes'' and Nietzsche's ``Higher Men''	65	(30)
Performing Deformity: The Making and Unmaking of Richard III	95	(24)
The Language of Prosthesis in Moby-Dick	119	(22)
Modernist Freaks and Postmodern Geeks: Literary Contortions of the Disabled Body	141	(22)
Afterword ``The first child born into the world was born deformed'': Disability Representations in These Times	163	(16)
Notes	179	(18)
Works Cited	197	(10)
Index	207