ENG 645 (01) - Disability in Literature and Culture

This course provides students with an in-depth study of how the portrayal of people with disabilities of many kinds - physical, emotional, social, and mental - in literature is reflective of the social and historical context in which it was written. Students apply close textual analysis of the imagery used to describe people with disabilities and evaluate the cultural attitudes this use of language reveals. Students read literature written by both disabled and non-disabled authors and analyze the ways that many stereotypical portrayals of disability undermine the disability community. Questions of how a culture decides what is "normal," how portrayals of the disability experience in literature differ between adults and children, and how the advocacy role is portrayed in literature are also examined. The goal of this course is to discover how literature can challenge our own assumptions about the experience of the disabled by contemplating what ultimately makes us human.