Disability in eighteenth-century England : imagining physical impairment / David M. Turner

Author:: Turner, David M., 1972-
Published:: New York, NY : Routledge (Publisher), 2012.
Copyright Date:: copyright 2012
Physical Description:: 1 online resource (xiv, 213 pages) : illustrations

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Series:

Routledge studies in Modern British History ; 8

Language Note:

In English.

Contents:

1: Defining Disability and Deformity -- 2: Religious and Medical Perspectives on Disability -- 3: Stereotypes and Cultural Representation -- 4: Visibility and Visualisation: Seeing the Disabled -- 5: Disabled Lives and Letters -- 6: Narratives of the Disabled Poor.

Summary:

This is the first book-length study of physical disability in eighteenth-century England. It assesses the ways in which meanings of physical difference were formed within different cultural contexts, and examines how disabled men and women used, appropriated, or rejected these representations in making sense of their own experiences. In the process, it asks a series of related questions: what constituted 'disability' in eighteenth-century culture and society? How was impairment perceived? How did people with disabilities see themselves and relate to others? What do their stories tell us about the social and cultural contexts of disability, and in what ways were these narratives and experiences shaped by class and gender? In order to answer these questions, the book explores the languages of disability, the relationship between religious and medical discourses of disability, and analyzes depictions of people with disabilities in popular culture, art, and the media. It also uncovers the 'hidden histories' of disabled men and women themselves drawing on elite letters and autobiographies, Poor Law documents and criminal court records.

Subject(s):

People with disabilities—England—History—18th century
Disabilities—England—History—18th century

ISBN:

9780203117545
9780415886444

Note:

Title from resource description page (viewed April 20, 2018).

Bibliography Note:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 191-206) and index.

View MARC record | catkey: 34532820