Rutgers University Press
Reading Embodied Citizenship
About this book
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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Frontmatter
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Contents
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Acknowledgments
vii -
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Introduction
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1. Domesticating the Exceptional: Those Extraordinary Twins and the Limits of American Individualism
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2. “Marvelous and Very Real”: The Grotesque in The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter and Wise Blood
59 -
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3. The Uniform Body: Spectacles of Disability and the Vietnam War
97 -
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4. Conceiving the Freakish Body: Reimagining Reproduction in Geek Love and My Year of Meats
131 -
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5. Some Assembly Required: The Disability Politics of Infinite Jest
170 -
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Conclusion: Inclusion, Fixing, and Legibility
198 -
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Notes
207 -
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Bibliography
227 -
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Index
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