Unruly Bodies: Life Writing by Women with Disabilities

by Susannah B. Mintz

The first critical study of personal narrative by women with disabilities, Unruly Bodies examines how contemporary writers use life writing to challenge cultural stereotypes about disability, gender, embodiment, and identity.

Combining the analyses of disability and feminist theories, Susannah Mintz discusses the work of eight American Nancy Mairs, Lucy Grealy, Georgina Kleege, Connie Panzarino, Eli Clare, Anne Finger, Denise Sherer Jacobson, and May Sarton. Mintz shows that by refusing inspirational rhetoric or triumph-over-adversity narrative patterns, these authors insist on their disabilities as a core--but not diminishing--aspect of identity. They offer candid portrayals of shame and painful medical procedures, struggles for the right to work or to parent, the inventive joys of disabled sex, the support and the hostility of family, and the losses and rewards of aging. Mintz demonstrates how these unconventional stories challenge feminist idealizations of independence and self-control and expand the parameters of what counts as a life worthy of both narration and political activism. Unruly Bodies also suggests that atypical life stories can redefine the relation between embodiment and identity generally.

Genres: Disability, Nonfiction, Disability Studies, Feminism, Writing, Sociology, Womens

264 pages, Paperback

First published September 3, 2007

Reviews

[Liz]

This is closer to scholarly writing than it is to popular, but I am really enjoying the insight into the writing by women with disabilities.

[Jacqueline Nyathi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Have finally finished what was a long and complex read. Much of it is impenetrable, partly because of style, but also because it is a scholarly work. However, I found the final two chapters, Alternative Motherhoods, and A Brief History of Aging, excellent.

[Charity]

Just to clarify, I stopped reading this book, but not because I didn't like it. It's just set up in such a way that I think I would get a lot more out of it if I read each of the works Mintz discusses. Her premise is fascinating to me, but I lack the time or the brainpower to delve too deeply into this one right now. Sad, though, because my library bought it and added it to the collection because I requested it. Well, at least someone else will now have access to it.

[Kelly Frost · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well-written, interesting topic. I'm just not up for an academic literary critique right now. Not sure now that I'm out of school if I ever will be! There are just so many good books to read. I'm interested in reading some of the women that Mintz writes about. Perhaps after having read them it might be more interesting to read one of her chapters.

[Gail · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's a quote on the back of this book that hypes how free of "jargon" this is, which makes no sense once you've read any of it.
My D&I book club picked this to read because we wanted to focus on voices of disabled writers, and this was a bad pick for it. We thought this was an anthology of work by disabled authors, and its our bad for not doing proper vetting on that front.
The analysis that author is doing does have some interesting pieces, but its dry and dense reading. If you are not familiar with the primary works that she's analyzing you'll be very lost. It is likely a good supplemental read if you are taking a class that includes the work of the writers whose work is being analyzed.

[Suad Ahmed · Rating 4 out of 5]

A compelling, subversive piece of scholarly writing that explores the embodied experience of being both female and disabled. This book -- and the experiences relayed in it are so utterly important, and I'm grateful for having stumbled upon this randomly at York’s bookstore