| Pub. Date | : Sep, 2022 |
|---|---|
| Product Name | : The IUP Journal of English Studies |
| Product Type | : Article |
| Product Code | : IJES020922 |
| Author Name | : Ankita Bhowmick and Paonam Sudeep Mangang |
| Availability | : YES |
| Subject/Domain | : Arts & Humanities |
| Download Format | : PDF Format |
| No. of Pages | : 07 |
Disability studies, rejecting the medical model which advocates
"fixing" a body, views disability as socially constructed. Whatever
does not fit into the hegemonized notion of the "norm" is precluded
from society. Disability studies is, however, extremely important in
understanding the interrelatedness of various forms of oppression,
as Davis (1995) identifies disability as "the missing term in the race,
class and gender triad." "Oppression" is a concept that is often found
in sociological, historical, and literary texts, which is simply defined
in terms of a dominant group subjugating a minor group. The
acclaimed Brazilian theorist on oppression, Paulo Friere, in The
Pedagogy of the Oppressed, discusses many themes of oppression
that include all forms of "-isms", which are based on race, ethnicity,
gender, class, caste, religion, and disability. Toni Morrison's novels
almost always feature disabled characters who have some form of
disability or impairment or are distinguished by a different feature.
Morrison deploys disability in a unique but traditional way, which
not only critiques the attitude of society towards disabled people
but also analyzes the intersection between race, gender, and disability.
Drawing a link between disability, race, and oppression is not new,
but people have seldom acknowledged this link in literature. This
paper attempts to find how the disabled characters of color are
portrayed in Morrison's novels and how these characters are
oppressed on the basis of their deviance from the politicized concept
of the "norm".