List of Illustration

Notes of Contributors

Series Preface

Introduction: Negotiating Normalcy in the Long Nineteenth Century, Joyce L. Huff, Ball State University, USA and Martha Stoddard Holmes, California State University, USA

Chapter 1: Atypical Bodies: The Cultural Work of the Nineteenth-Century Freak Show, Nadja Durbach, University of Utah, USA

Chapter 2: Mobility Impairment: From the Bath Chair to the Wheelchair, Karen Bourrier, University of Calgary, Canada

Chapter 3: Chronic Pain and Illness: "The Wounded Soldiery of Mankind," Maria Frawley, George Washington University, USA

Chapter 4: Blindness: Creating and Consuming a Non-Visual Culture, Vanessa Warne, University of Manitoba, Canada

Chapter 5: Deafness: Representation, Sign Language, and Community, c. 1800-1920, Esme Cleall, University of Sheffield, UK

Chapter 6: Speech: Dysfluent Temporalities in the Long Nineteenth Century, Daniel Martin, MacEwan University, Canada

Chapter 7: Learning Difficulties: The Transformation of "Idiocy" in the Nineteenth Century, Patrick
McDonagh, Concordia University, Canada

Chapter 8: Mental Health Issues: Alienists, Asylums, and the Mad, Elizabeth J. Donaldson, New York Institute of Technology, USA

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Martha Stoddard Holmes is Professor of Literature and Writing Studies at California State University San Marcos, USA.

Joyce L. Huff is Associate Professor of English at Ball State University, USA.

The long 19th century-stretching from the start of the American Revolution in 1776 to the end of World War I in 1918-was a pivotal period in the history of disability for the Western world and the cultures under its imperial sway. Industrialization was a major factor in the changing landscape of disability, providing new adaptive technologies and means of access while simultaneously contributing to the creation of a mass-produced environment hostile to bodies and minds that did not adhere to emerging norms. In defining disability, medical views, which framed disabilities as problems to be solved, competed with discourses from such diverse realms as religion, entertainment, education, and literature. Disabled writers and activists generated important counternarratives, made increasingly available through the spread of print culture.
An essential resource for researchers, scholars and students of history, literature, culture and education, A Cultural History of Disability in the Long Nineteenth Century includes chapters on atypical bodies, mobility impairment, chronic pain and illness, blindness, deafness, speech dysfluencies, learning difficulties, and mental health, with 37 illustrations drawn from period sources.