Portrayals of Physical Disabilities in Literature
Portrayals of physical disabilities in literature have evolved significantly since the mid-1970s, coinciding with increased advocacy for the rights and representation of disabled individuals. Traditionally, literature often depicted characters with disabilities in stereotypical and negative ways, portraying them as pitiful, terrifying, or mere metaphors for broader themes. This led to a call for more authentic and diverse representations, especially in children's literature, which serves as a vital tool for educating society about disabilities.
Recent trends show an increase in stories that depict disabled characters in a wider range of roles and situations, reflecting their true experiences and capabilities. For instance, works like Mark Medoff's "Children of a Lesser God" highlight the complexities of deaf culture, while literature now includes portrayals of disabled individuals as active participants in society rather than objects of pity or inspiration. Furthermore, communities such as the Deaf and hard of hearing have begun creating their own literature, asserting their identities and experiences. Overall, literature is shifting towards more respectful, nuanced depictions of people with physical disabilities, aiming to present them as integral members of society with full lives and diverse narratives.
Portrayals of Physical Disabilities in Literature
Overview
Since the mid-1970s, literary treatment of people with physical disabilities has become a significant political issue among many educators, politicians, and disabled persons as a result of state and national legislation. Advocates of the disabled argue that traditionally, literature has portrayed characters with physical impairments in stereotyped, sentimental, pitiful, patronizing, and even terrifying ways. They also believe that literature is one of the most successful means available to educate society about the differences and abilities of people who are disabled. Most of the argument focuses on children’s literature.
Various guidelines have been developed to instruct writers, publishers, and critics about what are and are not acceptable identities for disabled characters. Since the mid-1970s, this advocacy has dramatically increased the number of children and juvenile books being published that feature characters with physical disabilities. Although the primary concern of these new publications is to present nonstereotyped characters to the general population, many publishers recognize that literature also has an impact upon people who experience disabilities.
Historical Identities
Literature has always included characters with physical disabilities; literature reflects the societies in which they were created. For example, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “The Birth-Mark,” first published in March 1843, tells of a surgeon who is obsessed with removing his wife's birthmark, which he sees as a symbol of human fallibility and mortality. Laura, in Tennessee Williams’s The Glass Menagerie (1944), is pitiful and pathetic. She is not only impaired by her lame leg but also by an oppressive mother whose pity denies her any opportunity to develop. False impressions may be created by characters such as the deaf mother in Elmer Harris’ Johnny Belinda (1940), which perpetuates the myth that deaf people are unable to speak. Blind and crippled characters, in various literatures, are often beggars. Characters with dwarfism are often circus freaks or clowns. A disability may be presented as metaphor, as when the mother of the blind son in Leonard Gershe’s Butterflies Are Free (1969) pontificates that “There are none so blind as those who will not see.” The blind heroine fending off a violent attack in Frederick Knott’s Wait Until Dark (1966) was originally said to depict a disabled person capable of fending for herself, but is now criticized as a depiction of a handicapped, dependent woman who is an easy victim. Classic portraits of the disabled, such as Captain Ahab in Herman Melville’s Moby Dick (1851) and Helen Keller (both in her autobiography The Story of My Life, 1903, and in William Gibson’s dramatic retelling of her discovery of language in The Miracle Worker, 1959), are said to need other balancing portrayals, in order to present disabled people as full members of society, not necessarily obsessives or wild children.
Literary Trends
Recent attention to the social identities of people with disabilities is reflected in an increasing number of books depicting a wider array of physically disabled characters in a greater variety of circumstances. Mark Medoff’s Children of a Lesser God (1979) depicts a variety of deaf and hard-of-hearing people grappling not only with issues of love, but of politics. This mirrors the emergence of hearing impaired people as visible, contributing members of the American society who demand the right to maintain their own culture. Literature that depicts war-disabled veterans as heroic examples of the individual triumphing over personal adversity, such as Mervyn LeRoy’s Thirty Seconds over Tokyo (1944), in which a soldier successfully adapts to the loss of his legs, have all but disappeared, unless one considers such works as Ron Kovic’s Born on the Fourth of July (1976), an autobiographical account of a disabled, protesting veteran of the Vietnam War, as belonging to the same inspirational genre. Some advocates of the disabled have accepted negative portrayals of disabled Vietnam veterans because the identity of the veteran may be deemed secondary to laudable antiwar themes: Examples in literature include Bobbie Ann Mason’s In Country (1985). Other negative stereotypes are more universally attacked, such as the disfigured villains in the films Batman (1989), Batman Returns (1991), and Batman Forever (1995).
Literature is portraying people with physical disabilities in a variety of more accurate, plausible, and reflective situations. The Deaf and hard of hearing communities have begun to create their own literature. Books, and videos such as ASL Poetry: Selected Works of Clayton Valli (1995), which reflect Deaf culture, are appearing regularly. Regardless of disability, people are demonstrating their ability to participate in all facets of public life—jobs, education, and recreation—as well as private life. They are no longer objects of pity, metaphors for evil, or inspiring heroes, but rather representatives of every facet of life.
Bibliography
Baskin, Barbara H., and Karen H. Harris. More Notes from a Different Drummer: A Guide to Juvenile Fiction Portraying the Disabled. New York: R. R. Bowker, 1984.
Baskin, Barbara H., and Karen H. Harris. Notes from a Different Drummer: A Guide to Juvenile Fiction Portraying the Disabled. New York: R. R. Bowker, 1977.
Fiedler, Leslie A. Pity and Fear: Myths and Images of the Disabled in Literature Old and New. New York: International Center for the Disabled, 1984.
Friedberg, Joan Brest, June B. Mullins, and Adelaide Weir Sukiennik. Portraying Persons with Disabilities: An Annotated Bibliography of Nonfiction for Children and Teenagers. 2d ed. New York: R. R. Bowker, 1992.
Miller, Vassar, ed. Despite This Flesh: The Disabled in Stories and Poems. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1985.
Quicke, John. Disability in Modern Children’s Fiction. Cambridge, Mass.: Brookline, 1985.
Robertson, Debra. Portraying Persons with Disabilities: An Annotated Bibliography of Fiction for Children and Teenagers. 3d ed. New York: R. R. Bowker, 1992.
“Story of the Week: Nathaniel Hawthorne, ‘The Birth-Mark.’” Library of America, 10 Mar. 2017, https://www.loa.org/news-and-views/1259-nathaniel-hawthorne-the-birth-mark. Accessed 30 Sept. 2019.
Zola, Irving Kenneth, ed. Ordinary Lives: Voices of Disability and Disease. Cambridge, Mass.: Applewood Books, 1982.