DSAB 342 - Representations of Disability in Film and Literature (3 Credits)

Prerequisite: None
Film, since the beginning of the 20th century, and literature, since ancient times, have shown us what is best and worst in our society and helped us to imagine life in new ways. Disability historian Paul K. Longmore has written that films mirror views of persons with disabilities that prevail in society, for good or for ill, depicting persons with disabilities as monsters or criminals, as persons who should and often heroically do adjust to fit their environments, as either hyper-sexual or sexless beings, and, only recently, as individuals, whose experiences and lives have meaning both in connection with and independent of their impairments. The field of literature and disability is vast; students will read plays, as well as selected fiction and poetry by and about persons with disabilities.