Reading Embodied Citizenship: Disability, Narrative, and the Body Politic
Liberal individualism, a foundational concept of American politics, assumes an essentially homogeneous population of independent citizens. When confronted with physical disability and the contradiction of seemingly unruly bodies, however, the public searches for a story that can make sense of the difference. The narrative that ensues makes "abnormality" an important part of the dialogue about what a genuine citizen is, though its role is concealed as an exception to the rule of individuality rather than a defining difference. Reading Embodied Citizenship brings disability to the forefront, illuminating its role in constituting what counts as U.S. citizenship.

Drawing from major figures in American literature, including Mark Twain, Flannery O'Connor, Carson McCullers, and David Foster Wallace, as well as introducing texts from the emerging canon of disability studies, Emily Russell demonstrates the place of disability at the core of American ideals. The narratives prompted by the encounter between physical difference and the body politic require a new understanding of embodiment as a necessary conjunction of physical, textual, and social bodies. Russell examines literature to explore and unsettle long-held assumptions about American citizenship.

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Reading Embodied Citizenship: Disability, Narrative, and the Body Politic
Liberal individualism, a foundational concept of American politics, assumes an essentially homogeneous population of independent citizens. When confronted with physical disability and the contradiction of seemingly unruly bodies, however, the public searches for a story that can make sense of the difference. The narrative that ensues makes "abnormality" an important part of the dialogue about what a genuine citizen is, though its role is concealed as an exception to the rule of individuality rather than a defining difference. Reading Embodied Citizenship brings disability to the forefront, illuminating its role in constituting what counts as U.S. citizenship.

Drawing from major figures in American literature, including Mark Twain, Flannery O'Connor, Carson McCullers, and David Foster Wallace, as well as introducing texts from the emerging canon of disability studies, Emily Russell demonstrates the place of disability at the core of American ideals. The narratives prompted by the encounter between physical difference and the body politic require a new understanding of embodiment as a necessary conjunction of physical, textual, and social bodies. Russell examines literature to explore and unsettle long-held assumptions about American citizenship.

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Reading Embodied Citizenship: Disability, Narrative, and the Body Politic

Reading Embodied Citizenship: Disability, Narrative, and the Body Politic

by Emily Russell
Reading Embodied Citizenship: Disability, Narrative, and the Body Politic

Reading Embodied Citizenship: Disability, Narrative, and the Body Politic

by Emily Russell

Overview

Liberal individualism, a foundational concept of American politics, assumes an essentially homogeneous population of independent citizens. When confronted with physical disability and the contradiction of seemingly unruly bodies, however, the public searches for a story that can make sense of the difference. The narrative that ensues makes "abnormality" an important part of the dialogue about what a genuine citizen is, though its role is concealed as an exception to the rule of individuality rather than a defining difference. Reading Embodied Citizenship brings disability to the forefront, illuminating its role in constituting what counts as U.S. citizenship.

Drawing from major figures in American literature, including Mark Twain, Flannery O'Connor, Carson McCullers, and David Foster Wallace, as well as introducing texts from the emerging canon of disability studies, Emily Russell demonstrates the place of disability at the core of American ideals. The narratives prompted by the encounter between physical difference and the body politic require a new understanding of embodiment as a necessary conjunction of physical, textual, and social bodies. Russell examines literature to explore and unsettle long-held assumptions about American citizenship.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780813554518
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Publication date: 09/01/2012
Series: The American Literatures Initiative
Edition description: First Paperback Edition
Pages: 264
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Emily Russell is an assistant professor at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction
1 Domesticating the Exceptional: Those Extraordinary Twins and the Limits of American Individualism
2 "Marvelous and Very Real": The Grotesque in The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter and Wise Blood
3 The Uniform Body: Spectacles of Disability and the Vietnam War
4 Conceiving the Freakish Body: Reimagining Reproduction in Geek Love and My Year of Meats
5 Some Assembly Required: The Disability Politics of Infinite Jest
Conclusion: Inclusion, Fixing, and Legibility
Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the Author
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