Someone forwarded this interchange from an academic listserv concerning
18th century literature. I thought you all might find it interesting how a
well-placed academic with little or no knowledge of disability studies
might consider such work. I've deleted names to protect the ignorant:
The first entry was:
> >Helen Deutsch's Resemblance and Disgrace, on Pope in relation to his
> >disability, is another good source; she is now working on a book on
> >Johnson and disability and has edited a collection of essays with
> >Felicity Nussbaum that I think is now out, on the emergent area of
> >disability studies (I hope that's the right term). Cheers,
The response:
Without any reflection on the scholarship cited here, I'm nevertheless curious
> about how the category of "disability studies" emerges at this time. Is it
> because just about everything else has become some category of "studies" by
> now? Or is there some strong personality in our profession who has stamped a
> whole new discipline for us without our consent? Unless it's already out and
> has escaped my notice, I can readily see how a really hot new category of
> "paedophile studies" should appear very soon. Isn't it inventing a new
category
> for academic budgets and promotion/tenure tracks rather than simply an
interest
> in the subject itself of an author's handicap per se that is at issue?
Suddenly
> someone writing a rather personal book about Down's Syndrome takes on the
aura
> of a "scholar" worthy of being hired in eighteenth-century studies, let's
say,
> and deserves consideration along with someone doing an edition of A or B
in the
> same period. Who will get the job? Guess!
>
>
>
>
Best,
Lennard J. Davis
Professor and Graduate Director
Department of English
Binghamton University
Binghamton, NY 13902
607-777-2770 Fax: 607-777-2408
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