Tales from the Crip: Narrative Reconstructions of the Storyteller’s Disabled Male Body in Contemporary Gothic Fiction
Dr Alan Gregory
Date: Wednesday 25 May, 2016
Time: 2.15pm–3.45pm
Place: Eden036, Liverpool Hope University, UK
In Staring (2009), Rosemarie Garland-Thomson emphasises that bodies of extraordinary scale and shape often develop a storied quality. Her recognition of the spectacular body’s familiarity as narrative gestures towards the Gothic through reference to the unusual corporeal formations of monstrous bodies and suggestions that ‘monsters come from horror stories designed to frighten’ (167). Several disabled men in contemporary Gothic texts, including Arturo Binewski of Katherine Dunn’s Geek Love (1989), Charles Byrne of Hilary Mantel’s The Giant, O’Brien (1998) and Harry Peake of Patrick McGrath’s Martha Peake (2000) adhere to Garland-Thomson’s notion through their presentation of stories as composites of their exhibitions as cultural spectacles. Dr Gregory will explore how contemporary Gothic’s physically disabled figures have more agency as their role as storytellers allows them to re-write the horror stories typically ascribed to their bodies by accentuating the dichotomy between the monstrosity perceived in their corporeal difference, and their displays of poetic sensibility.
Alan Gregory completed his PhD at Lancaster University in 2013. His publications focus on Gothic fiction and disability and he is currently working on a book for the Palgrave Macmillan series, Literary Disability Studies, which is based in the CCDS.
This seminar is part of the CCDS series, The Voice of Disability. The concluding session is:
29 Jun 2016, Voices of Becoming, Laura Waite.
For further information please contact:
Dr. David Bolt
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