DSAB 621 - Disability Studies and the Humanities (3 Credits)

Prerequisite: None
This course will provide an introduction to disability studies and the humanities. Over the last twenty years disability scholars have analyzed representations of people with disabilities as they appear in literature, myth, art, film, photography, music and theater. These fields reflect and shape the meaning and reality of disability. Poetic and other artistic modes of discourse can deepen our understanding of the lived experience of disability. However, these shared representations of disability are, for the most part, taken for granted. Yet they have a powerful effect on popular culture, influence the attitudes and behaviors of individuals and play a part in the formation of public policies related to disability. The course will provide in-depth analysis of: the image of the cripple in literature; women with disabilities in fiction and drama; the idiot figure in modern fiction and film; the roles and stereotypes of disabled figures in cinema; theorizing disability in music; the history of photography and psychiatry; images of madness in literature; people with disabilities as artists and performers; representations of people with disabilities in journalism, media and popular culture.