Niezwykłe ciała. Przedstawienia niepełnosprawności fizycznej w amerykańskiej kulturze i literaturze

by Rosemarie Garland-Thomson

Nie bez powodu więc jej dwie książki: „Niezwykłe ciała. Przedstawienia niepełnosprawności fizycznej w amerykańskiej kulturze i literaturze” oraz „Gapienie się, czyli o tym, jak patrzymy i jak pokazujemy siebie innym”, wyznaczające ważne kierunki w tej dziedzinie, napisane z niezwykłym rozmachem i wpisujące niepełnosprawność w szerszy namysł nad kulturą, relacjami społecznymi i sposobami ich kształtowania, inaugurują zaplanowaną przez nas serię publikacji. Seria Odzyskiwanie obecności, w ramach której będziemy wydawać kolejne, kluczowe pozycje poszerzające namysł nad niepełnosprawnością w jej wymiarze społecznym, politycznym, performatywno-teatralnym czy estetycznym, pomyślana jest - w duchu Rosemarie Garland-Thomson - jako konfiguracja rozmaitych ujęć skłaniających do myślenia o różnorodności jako wartości.
(Ewelina Godlewska-Byliniaki Justyna Lipko-Konieczna)

Genres: Disability, Disability Studies, Nonfiction, Theory, History, Cultural Studies, Health

246 pages, Paperback

First published December 30, 1996

Reviews

[Ruby · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5
i imagine this was mind-blowing when it was published twenty years ago, now i found it a little repetitive. margrit shildrick's later Embodying the Monster: Encounters with the Vulnerable Self deals with similar issues and questions, but is a bit more radical in its implications i think.

[Ely · Rating 4 out of 5]

Originally posted at Tea & Titles

For those of you who don’t know, I’m doing my Honours next year about disability in YA so this is one of my resources for that. I think this book is very important. I read a reasonable amount of literary criticism for class, and I’ve started reading it for fun lately—I haven’t felt the needed to write down as many notes as I did for anything other than this book. There was a lot that resonated with me as someone with a disability, but there was also a lot that scared me. There’s a whole chapter on ‘freak shows’ that made me feel incredibly sick. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I was never taught anything but the very basics about the history of disability in school. It’s easier to forget the horrible stuff, and I think that’s what we’ve done as a society. Even nowadays, people are still awful towards people with disabilities. I remember being bullied in school because of my leg. I actually went through all my Facebook pictures just then, and I realised that my leg is never visible—I’ve positioned myself is every photo to hide my scars. The point is, Extraordinary Bodies made me think a lot about how disability is still treated today.

There’s another chapter in this which looks at different ways of approaching disability in terms of theory. I guess I’ve always thought of disability on a personal, or medical level. I think this mostly has to do with the way I think about my disability on a day to day basis—i.e. my foot hurts today because I walked too much yesterday, or I should stay home today because my limp is especially bad. I’ve never studied a book for any class that had a disability in it, so I’ve never really thought about the other theoretical frameworks I could apply. I think this presents some really interesting ones. Of course, I was most interested in looking at the feminist one, but hey, each to their own.

There were, unfortunately, a few bits I had to skip—just because they were on books I hadn’t read yet, and I didn’t want them spoiled. I did have a quick look through, and I have to say that I’m even more excited for Toni Morrison’s work now than I previously was. I’ve been meaning to get to The Bluest Eye for ages, and now I’m desperately hoping I can read it during October, or November. One day, once I’ve read more of the books Thomson mentions, I’m definitely coming back to this book and reading through those chapters.

I know literary criticism isn’t for everyone, and I don’t know that this is really the greatest place to start, but if you’re passionate about disability representation, or you just want to learn more then I highly recommend Extraordinary Bodies. Now, if only I can get my hands on every other thing Rosemarie Garland Thomson has written!

[jakbogakocham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bardzo fajne. Otwierające wiele drzwi. Cieszę się, że porusza twórczość Toni Morrison. Szkoda, że nic odkrywczego o freak shows

[Anton Løkke Laursen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The mother of disability studies, this theoretical study of the freaky/deviant/disabled body certainly shows its age. That being said this is a deeply sympathetic and theoretically diverse argument of seeing disability as identity.

[Emma Arnold · Rating 3 out of 5]

O zmenách diskurzu znevýhodnenia v kultúrnom sektore záp. sveta (najmä v lit.), od mystifikovaného groteskného spektáklu cez patologizáciu a klarifikáciu ,,neúplných tiel” až po kyborga. Ponúka veľa nezodpovedaných a provokatívnych otázok ohľadom estetiky rovnosti, s dôrazom na neustále napätie na hranici jednotvárnoti a jedinečnosti tiel. Radikálnosť sociopolitického modelu znevýhodnenia miestami zjednodušuje tému...

[Mia]

I've read a bit of Garland-Thomson's work before, and like always, she provides a thorough and interesting perspective into the topic of how bodies are treated in the American psyche. This collection is strong in both theory and practical engagement with texts, looking beyond the typical examples of Moby Dick to the works of Toni Morrison in her exploration of how disability is dealt with in American literature. She also discusses at length the history of the Victorian freak show, which was also very interesting.

[Rae green · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars!
If you want to study disability, definitely read this book. This is one of the first books to really bring disability into the humanities, and does so very well. It’s definitely a bit dated now, but that’s going to occur when you are one of the leading scholars to start this conversation.

[Martyna · Rating 5 out of 5]

bardzo ciekawa książka oparta o dokładną analizę historii sposobów przedstawiania osób z niepełnosprawnościami w kulturze i literaturze. autorka skupia się na trzech kształtujących dyskurs kategoriach: freak shows, powieści sentymentalnej i emancypacyjnych powieściach czarnych kobiet. jedyny minus tej książki to ogrom długich dygresji w przypisach, przez które czytając ciągle jest się wybijanym z rytmu i kontekstu poszczególnych zdań, a które równie dobrze można byłoby umieścić w ciągłym tekście.

[theri · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really found her analysis of literature quite illuminating. I was actually surprised at the amount of space she devotes to some ideas; so, the organization of the book seemed a little haphazard. For a better sample of her writing and disability studies schematic representation see her article in Signs magazine.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a brilliant book. It was one of the first disability studies monographs that I read, and it significantly changed the way that I think about disability, philosophy, and American literature. I would recommend it to anyone.

[Shruti Buddhavarapu · Rating 3 out of 5]

So crucial, and so well-done! 3.5/5.

[Sierra · Rating 5 out of 5]

"If unity is no longer the organizing principle of world and self—as the modernists lamented and the postmodernists celebrate—then the grotesque sheds its twisted, repugnant, and despair-laden implications and becomes a cyborg: the affirmed survivor of cultural otherness, ready to engage the postmodern world on its own terms."

Reading theory has been extraordinarily slow as I begin full-time work, but I'm so glad I finished this one at last. Rosemarie Garland-Thomson is an incredibly adept and clear writer, and this is the sort of book that still makes sense even if you have limited familiarity with the case studies from literature. Highly recommend!

[Serena Mancini · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting discourse about the history and cultural portrayal of physical differences. Reads as an academic paper with theories and literary examples.

“This discourse terms women's unmodified bodies as unnatural and abnormal, while casting surgically altered bodies as normal and natural.”

“The thetorical thrust of this book, then, is to critique the politics of appearance that governs our interpretation of physical difference, to suggest that disability requires accommodation rather than compensation, and to shift our conception of disability from pathology to identity.”

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

As an English major could someone please use this as the basis or jumping off point for a class or even a segment of a class? This really blew my mind and made me wish that more of the "required reading" done throughout my education had black female authors because they seem to know how to represent disability without pity.

[Imogen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pros:
-unique, fascinating analysis of American culture through a disability lens
-fantastic, thorough explanations of the historical progression of disability in culture

Cons:
-a bit repetitive
- diction can be overly academic at times

[Sarah Wahl]

started reading this for a college class & never finished it, at this point im just going to put it back on my tbr because it has been so long. It would feel unfair to rate it after just picking up roughly where I left off

[Dylan]

i have huge respect for a 137-page academic monograph. huge. it is all you need

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Got a bit repetitive in some places but overall it's a good starting place for disability studies.

[Jess Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent background and analysis

This book makes you think about yourself as a consciousness that lives inside a body. Our bodies vary in characteristics and ability, but the way that differently abled bodies have been constructed in literature has been mostly flat and without dimension. This book calls out examples that break this mold, and strives to encourage a culture where all people are described as people first, not just by what may make their bodies different than others.

[melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Looking to change how we see disability as a metaphor in literature. Really interesting stuff!