Disability and Dissensus is a comprehensive collection of essays that reflects the interdisciplinary nature of critical cultural disability studies. The volume offers a selection of texts by numerous specialists in different areas of the humanities, both well-established scholars and young academics, as well as practitioners and activists from the USA, the UK, Poland, Ireland, and Greece. Taking inspiration from Critical Disability Studies and Jacques Rancière’s philosophy, the book critically engages with the changing modes of disability representation in contemporary cultures. It sheds light both on inspirations and continuities as well as tensions and conflicts within contemporary disability studies, fostering new understandings of human diversity and contributing to a dissensual ferment of thought in the academia, arts, and activism.
Contributors are: Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, Dan Goodley, Marek Mackiewicz-Ziccardi, Małgorzata Sugiera, David T. Mitchell, Sharon L. Snyder, Maria Tsakiri, Murray K. Simpson, James Casey, Agnieszka Izdebska, Edyta Lorek-Jezińska, Dorota Krzemińska, Jolanta Rzeźnicka-Krupa, Wiktoria Siedlecka-Dorosz, Katarzyna Ojrzyńska, Christian O’Reilly, and Len Collin.
Katarzyna Ojrzyńska, Ph.D. (2013), is Assistant Professor at the University of Lodz, Poland. She has published widely on cultural disability studies and Irish studies, and translated Rosemarie Garland-Thomson’s book on staring into Polish (forthcoming in 2020).
Maciej Wieczorek is a doctoral candidate at the University of Lodz, Poland. He has published a number of articles on political theatre, and translated the seminal “The Fundamental Principles of Disability” (UPIAS) into Polish.
Acknowledgements
Illustrations
Abbreviations
Notes on Contributors
Disability and Dissensus
Katarzyna Ojrzyńska and Maciej Wieczorek
Part 1 (Re)Defining Models of Disability and Normalcy: Theories and Contexts
1 Critical Disability Studies in the Humanities Rosemarie Garland-Thomson and Katarzyna Ojrzyńska
2 Critical Disability Studies: Sketches from Poland and the UK Dan Goodley and Marek Mackiewicz-Ziccardi
3 Making Sense of Bodies: Models and Metaphors in Sciences and Arts Małgorzata Sugiera
Part 2Disability Film Festivals: The Politics of Representation and Participation
4 Disability Cinema: Charting Alternative Ethical Maps of Living on Film David T. Mitchell and Sharon L. Snyder
5 Disability Film Festivals: The Spaces where Crip Killjoys Take Action Maria Tsakiri
Part 3 Between the Real and the Reel
6 Disability, Gender, and Innocence: Russ Meyer’s Mudhoney and Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!and Problems of Signification in Cinema Murray K. Simpson
7 “Never the Twain Shall Meet”: Myth and Miracles in Jessica Hauser’s 2009 Film Lourdes James Casey
Part 4 Bodies that Matter: Representing and Experiencing Non-Standard Physiques
8 A Dwarf – A Metaphor and a Body in Words and Images Agnieszka Izdebska
9 Disability and Its Doubles: The Conflicting Discourses of Disability in Susan Nussbaum’s No One as Nasty Edyta Lorek-Jezińska
Part 5Beyond Therapy
10 Between Therapy and Art: Borderline Space in Polish Theatre of People with Intellectual (Dis)Ability Dorota Krzemińska and Jolanta Rzeźnicka-Krupa
11 ‘…and we all’: The Phenomenon of Theatre 21 Wiktoria Siedlecka-Dorosz
Part 6From Life to Stage and Screen: Blue Teapot’s Sanctuary
12 Shooting Actors who have Intellectual Disabilities: A Reflexive Analysis on the Making of the Feature Film Sanctuary Len Collin
13 Christian O’Reilly Talks about His Writing on Disability for the Stage and for the Screen Christian O’Reilly
Disability, Dis(sensual)Art, and the Politics of Participation Maciej Wieczorek and Katarzyna Ojrzyńska
Index
All interested in disability studies, crip culture, and crip activism; particularly students and researchers specializing in disability studies, critical studies, social studies, as well as film, literature, theatre, performance, etc.