English 90d. Literature and Disability

Instructor: Marc Shell
Tuesday, 12:45-2:45pm | Location:  TBD
Enrollment: Limited to 15 students.

How has literature influenced the rhetoric and philosophy of disability?  This seminar considers literary and cinematic works that focus on the body (deafness, blindness, and paralysis), the mind (madness and trauma), and language (muteness, stuttering, and dyslexia).  Special attention to the disabling and enabling aftermaths of pandemics and to the effects of modern prostheses. Readings include chapters from the King James Bible and works by Brecht, Hitchcock, Keller, Martineau, Milton,  Morrison, Shakespeare,  Shaw, and Trumbo.