Diminished Faculties: A Political Phenomenology of Impairment

by Jonathan Sterne

Overview

In Diminished Faculties Jonathan Sterne offers a sweeping cultural study and theorization of impairment. Drawing on his personal history with thyroid cancer and a paralyzed vocal cord, Sterne undertakes a political phenomenology of impairment in which experience is understood from the standpoint of a subject that is not fully able to account for itself. He conceives of impairment as a fundamental dimension of human experience, examining it as both political and physical. While some impairments are enshrined as normal in international standards, others are treated as causes or effects of illness or disability. Alongside his fractured account of experience, Sterne provides a tour of alternative vocal technologies and practices; a study of “normal” hearing loss as a cultural practice rather than a medical problem; and an intertwined history and phenomenology of fatigue that follows the concept as it careens from people to materials science to industrial management to spoons. Sterne demonstrates how impairment is a problem, opportunity, and occasion for approaching larger questions about disability, subjectivity, power, technology, and experience in new ways. Diminished Faculties ends with a practical user’s guide to impairment theory.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781478022329
Publisher:	Duke University Press
Publication date:	10/25/2021
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	304
File size:	84 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Jonathan Sterne is James McGill Professor, Department of Art History and Communication Studies at McGill University, and author of MP3: The Meaning of a Format and The Audible Past: Cultural Origins of Sound Reproduction, both also published by Duke University Press, and is editor of The Sound Studies Reader. He also makes music and other audio works. Visit his website at https://sterneworks.org.

Table of Contents

1. Degrees of Muteness  1
2. Meet the Dork-o-Phone  41
3. In Search of New Vocalities: An Imaginary Exhibition  69
4. Audile Scarification: On Normal Impairments  117
5. There Are Never Enough Spoons  157
Impairment Theory: A User's Guide  193
Credits  209
Notes  217
Bibliography  249
Index  281

Editorial Reviews

“In this intimate critical phenomenology, Jonathan Sterne shows us that the agential subject of disability studies is interpretive, nonstandard, somewhat unreliable, and nevertheless political. Diminished Faculties is at once an account of the lived experience of impairment and an inventory of what it can engender. Crip humor, technological hacks, imaginary archives, and material metaphors form the myriad registers of Sterne's authorial voice.”

-- Aimi Hamraie, author of Building Access: Universal Design and the Politics of Disability

“Offering a compelling account of the phenomenology of impairment, this fascinating, brilliant, and witty book will take disability studies in at least three new directions.”

-- Michael Bérubé, author of The Secret Life of Stories: From Don Quixote to Harry Potter, How Understanding Intellectual Disability Transforms the Way We Read

“With its capacious, unpressured mode of being, theorizing, and storytelling, this profound book teaches us how to think and how to be.”

-- Kathleen Stewart, coauthor of The Hundreds

"Diminished Faculties is a lyric, genre-bending book, that is forcefully argued, rendered beautifully, and will open the path for further research. It is deeply generous both to reader and future scholar, as Sterne’s work always is. But additionally, this is a book that so many have needed, and need now, a way of situating the present emergency in a much longer, political history."

-- Hannah Zeavin boundary 2

"A new book by Sterne is a seismic event, an idea drop so heavy that it takes time to fully process. Sterne is preternaturally skilled at taking apart prosaic, everyday objects . . . connecting them to history and culture and formulating elegant arguments that make you see and hear the world in new ways. His scholarship is rigorous, but he also maintains a fluid, approachable style that isn’t dry, as much academic prose tends to be. . . . His wide-ranging, cross-disciplinary outlook is not only instructive, but also empowering and inspiring."

-- Geeta Dayal 4Columns

"An intimate and rigorous journey, indispensable for anybody who wants to engage with the issue of disability in media and reflect on its importance for organisations, accessibility and inclusion."

-- Domenico Napolitano punt0org

"So often disabled people are expected to clarify to others what is wrong with them, a pedagogical task that more sophisticated critical explorations of disability can’t quite accomplish. But through his multi-genre approach, Sterne is able to assert and justify his existence while studying the cultural and technological forces that shape it. This is why it’s gratifying to read disability scholarship written by disabled scholars."

-- Sophia Stewart The Baffler

"A triumph from beginning to end. . . . The use of humility and humor, specifically sourced from the collective and individual lived experiences of disabled people (i.e. crip humor), is a major strength of the manuscript. Sterne is also skillful at bringing disability scholars into conversation with one another and engaging readers interactively as interlocutors."

-- Meryl Alper New Media & Society

"A thoughtful analysis of originality and imagination in the midst of so-called diminished faculties. . . . Sterne’s exploration of what constitutes valued labor within the academy is particularly illuminating. Sterne also provides useful resources on impairment theory and extensive notes and references providing an excellent foundation for future research in the subject area."

-- Nancy Hansen H-Disability, H-Net Reviews

"Diminished Faculties offers a new theoretically and methodologically accessible impairment theory as a political phenomenology of bodies and technologies. The book provides a rigorous study of technology, hearing, and voice with respect to impairment. In addition, Sterne engages with his own lived experiences of diminished faculties in speech, voice, hearing, and the feeling of wellness. . . . The book is not only insightful, but also funny and quite quirky."

-- Slava Greenberg Film Quarterly

"Sterne’s exploration of experiences of speech and hearing across theory, autoethnography, art practice, and activism makes Diminished Faculties a rigorous yet personal account of impairment as an inherent part of human embodiment."

-- Dorothy R. Santos Public

From the Publisher