ENG 147 - Disability in Literature and Film

Semester Hours: 4

Our course will investigate how literary and film texts have portrayed people with disabilities in ways that have shaped our understanding of what is “normal” and “abnormal” in human beings. Drawing on a selective sampling of fiction, poetry, drama, memoir, and films, the class will acquaint themselves with a range of writers and characters who cope with physical / mental impairment or developmental challenges and must forge positive perspectives on their resiliency, social identity, and self-realization. The fictional lives of characters we encounter in childhood-Quasimodo, Mad-Eye Moody, Percy Jackson, and all those sea captains (Hook, Ahab, Long John Silver!)-have imprinted themselves on our minds as indelibly as the historical figures Richard III, John Merrick, and Helen Keller. Literary and cinematic representations of disability often do a disservice to those afflicted by perpetuating false assumptions about their personhood, mythologizing their powers, or reducing them to objects of condescension or pity. In conjunction with the SED companion course “Foundations of Special Education,” we shall use London’s civic institutions and cultural offerings to determine what constitutes ethical representations of disability in art and entertainment.

Cross-Listed: FS 147
Intellectual Perspective: HC