Retrieving the Crip Outsider - Representations of Disability in Literature and Culture

Why are abnormal figures at the heart of literary canon and what do they tell us about the society that writes and circulates these stories? This book studies the constitution of disability and discusses concepts of corporeal difference that are socio-historically rooted in the Indian cultural milieu. The volume aims at looking at the central issue of the various aspects of disability representation, the impact of these representations on the materially embodied experience of disablement, the political imperatives shaping the narratives of corporeal difference, and the influences of highly particularised local cultural context on the constitution of epistemic and discursive notions of corporeality. The volume follows three routes of inquiry: How do we find 'disability' in texts or, what are 'disability texts'? How do we read concepts historically using literary and cultural texts and what would a similar study of the Indian context reveal? How do we study culturally distinct ways of narrating bodyminds? These questions will be answered through a discussion of representation histories of the abnormal informed by histories of disease conditions and its representations, with the aim of developing ways of thinking and talking about concepts of corporeal difference that are socio-culturally and socio-historically located away from the western context and to explore the intersections between gender, caste, religion, sexuality, class and disability. CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS INTRODUCTION NEGOTIATING THE POLEMICS OF INTENTIONAL EVASION: THE NONDISABLED IMAGINARY, THE DISABLED SELF AND ACADEMIC DISABILITY ACTIVISM CLINICAL RESCRIPTS: RECOVERING THE AFFECTIVE POLITICS OF MEDICALISING WOMEN’S BODIES SELF-CONCEPT, EMBODIMENT, SEXUALITY AND DISABILITY: HOW DISABLED WOMEN EXPERIENCE NAVARATRI AND GAURI VRAT IN GUJARAT (RE)DEFINING METAPHORICAL ADDRESS: FEMALE DISABILITY, EMBODIMENT AND AGENCY IN JERRY PINTO’S EM AND THE BIG HOOM DISMEMBERED BODIES IN A DISABLING CULTURE: GENDERED PERCEPTION OF DISABILITY IN INDIAN MYTHS OVERLAPPING DISCOURSES OF MONSTROSITY AND DISABILITY IN INDIA: DECODING ARYAN– DRAVIDIAN NARRATIVES IN THE RAMAYANA AND ITS CONTEMPORARY ITERATION IN AMISH TRIPATHI’S ‘SHIVA’ TRILOGY DISABILITY, DISCOURSE AND METAPHOR BLIND LIVES MATTER: METAPHOR AND MATERIALITY IN DHARAMVIR BHARATI’S DISABILITY, TEXTUALITY AND THE HERMENEUTICS OF DISTANCE IN SRIRAM RAGHAVAN’S ANDHADHUN SANJAY LEELA BHANSALI’S DISABILITY GAZE: LIGHTS, CAMERA AND SOUND! IN BLACK AND GUZAARISH ‘BEZUBAAN’1 OR ‘HUMZUBAAN’2: PROBLEMATISING DEAF IDENTITIES THROUGH A SELECT FEW HINDI FILMS3 FROM CURE TO HEALING: COMPREHENDING DEAFNESS THROUGH MADAN VASISHTA’S DEAF IN DELHI CROSSING CULTURES IN STORYING DEPRESSION: SHADOWS IN THE SUN AS INTERSECTION AND DIALOGUE BETWEEN DISABILITY STUDIES AND MEDICAL HUMANITIES ABOUT THE EDITOR AND CONTRIBUTORS INDEX