Extraordinary bodies : figuring physical disability in American culture and literature /

Garland-Thomson, Rosemarie,

Extraordinary bodies : figuring physical disability in American culture and literature / Rosemarie Garland Thomson. - Twentieth anniversary edition. - New York : Columbia University Press, (c)2017. - 1 online resource

Includes bibliographies and index.

Table of Contents ; Preface to the Twentieth Anniversary Edition; Preface and Acknowledgments ; I. Politicizing Bodily Differences; 1. Disability, Identity, and Representation: An Introduction; 2. Theorizing Disability ; Illustrations ; II. Constructing Disabled Figures: Cultural and Literary Sites ; 3. The Cultural Work of American Freak Shows, 1835-1940; 4. Benevolent Maternalism and the Disabled Women in Stowe, Davis, and Phelps ; 5. Disabled Women as Powerful Women in Petry, Morrison, and Lorde ; Conclusion: From Pathology to Identity ; Notes ; Bibliography; Index.

Extraordinary Bodies is a cornerstone text of disability studies, establishing the field upon its publication in 1997. Framing disability as a minority discourse rather than a medical one, the book added depth to oppressive narratives and revealed novel, liberatory ones. Through her incisive readings of such texts as Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin and Rebecca Harding Davis's Life in the Iron Mills, Rosemarie Garland-Thomson exposed the social forces driving representations of disability. She encouraged new ways of looking at texts and their depiction of the body and stretched the li.



9780231544771


American fiction--History and criticism.--19th century
American fiction--History and criticism.--20th century
People with disabilities in literature.
Human body in literature.
Human body--Social aspects.
People with disabilities--Social conditions.
Women in literature.
Popular culture--History.--United States
Sideshows--History.--United States
Feminism and literature--United States.


Electronic Books.

PS374 / .E987 2017