Living disability, collecting and researching it academically

Meggie Boyle is a 3^rd year student of French in the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Literature and Linguistics. Earlier this year, she got in touch with us at Cambridge University Libraries with book recommendations for her Year Abroad Dissertation project. She suggested titles that we did not have, and we arranged digital alternate formats for books that were only available to buy in print format, via the Cambridge Libraries Accessibility Services. You can read here about her experience of disability which fueled her dissertation project.

“Disability has dominated my life, not only pervading every part of my physical body, but also seeping into the very core of my being, my mind: I see it in everything I do and everywhere I go.

I have struggled immensely with accepting my disability. I endure discrimination in almost every area of my life, whether that be blatant forms – such as being denied equal treatment in the College accommodation process – or more subtle micro-aggressions – such as mocking my gait or the simple, but ever-so effective, art of staring, when onlookers desperately try to sneak a glimpse of my body to decipher what is wrong with me.

I have internalised this myriad of experiences. They shape my relationships with friends and family and define many life choices. I have introjected the gaze of compulsory able-bodiedness, an orientation onto which society so fervently grasps. I have relentlessly endeavoured to pass as able-bodied in every situation. Society’s treatment, malignment and ignorance of disability has caused me to suffer greatly from depression for many years, most potently in the past year. Through undertaking this project, I am striving to learn more about my identity as a disabled woman and become more accepting of myself.

Stereotyped misconceptions of disability monopolise society. It is imperative that this changes. Strides have been made in improving the lives of other minorities, and whilst much work undoubtedly remains to be done in these areas, disability remains miles behind. Disabled people must no longer live on the fringes of society, viewed as worthless, burdensome and unlovable, something to be fixed; we must be appreciated as whole people capable of positively impacting society.

France is no exception; it is a context which has made minimal interventions into discussions of disability, and a context in which portrayals of disability remain deeply limited and limiting. Notwithstanding, there are a handful of important works which merit attention. In this project, I will explore Delphine Censier’s 2005 Elle, Moi, Une Autre (C219.c.7273); Alexandre Jollien’s 1999 Eloge de la Faiblesse (C207.d.4050) and Jacques Audiard’s 2012 De Rouille et D’Os [a romantic film based on Craig Davidson’s short story collection Rust and Bone, 2005]. In order to narrow the scope of this project to properly attend to the challenges that different types of disability pose, I will be focusing specifically on physical disabilities. I will examine the ways in which disability is expressed both in written and cinematic texts, analysing how the portrayals in these texts challenge hackneyed stereotypes and narratives (or, indeed, repeat them), and how effective these strategies may be. I am particularly interested in centering women’s experiences of disability, addressing questions of embodiment, desire and desirability, and reflecting on divergences from the male experience of disability.

               I will be delighted if my project can even slightly contribute to this highly underappreciated, yet incredibly important, field of study.”

Meggie Boyle

Here are some titles related to Meggie’s research. We purchased ebooks when they were available to libraries. The Libraries Accessibility Service can provide alternate formats of the books to eligible students registered with the Accessibility and Disability Resource Centre.

References:

• Ancet, Pierre. Dialogue sur le handicap et l’altérité: Ressemblances dans la différence. Paris: Dunod, 2012. Ebook
• Bell, Christopher M. ed. Blackness and Disability: Critical Examinations and Cultural Interventions. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2011. 2023.9.181
• Braithwaite, Dawn O., and Teresa L. Thompson eds. Handbook of Communication and People with Disabilities: Research and Application. Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers, 2000. 232.c.200.1225 and ebook.
• Butler, Ruth, and Hester Parr eds. Mind and Body Spaces: Geographies of Illness, Impairment and Disability. London: Routledge, 1999. 695:3.c.95.313 and ebook
• Chanter, Tina. The Picture of Abjection: Film, Fetish, and the Nature of Difference. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2008. 415:3.c.200.1732
• Corker, Mairian, and Sally French eds. Disability Discourse. Buckingham: Open University Press, 1999. 9006.c.788, 232.c.99.932 and ebook
• Deegan, Mary Jo and Brooks, Nancy A. eds. Women and Disability: The Double Handicap. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, ©1985, 2017. Ebook
• Dufour, Pierre. L’expérience handie: handicap et virilité. Saint-Martin-d’Hères: Presses Universitaires de Grenoble, 2013. C207.d.3233
• Foucault, Michel. Les anormaux: cours au Collège de France (1974-1975); dir. François Ewald et Alessandro Fontana. Paris: Gallimard; Le Seuil, 1999. 9008.c.5492
• Abnormal; Translated by Graham Burchell. London: Verso, 2003. 180:2.c.200.92. 2016.8.8372
• Fries, Kenny ed. Staring Back: The Disability Experience from the inside out / Edited by Kenny Fries . New York: Plume, 1997. C219.c.4778
• Gardou, Charles ed. Connaître le handicap, reconnaître la personne. Toulouse: Érès. 2005. Ebook
• Gardou, Charles. Le handicap au risque des cultures: variations anthropologiques. Toulouse: Érès, 2010. Ebook; Le handicap dans notre imaginaire culturel: Variations anthropologiques 2, 2015. Ebook; Le handicap et ses empreintes culturelles. Variations anthropologiques 3. 2017. Ebook.
• Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies. Liverpool: University Press, 2009. L240.c.3123 [p/hole: D.235] and Electronic Legal Deposit
• Korff Sausse, Simone. Figures du handicap: mythes, arts, littérature. Paris: Payot, 2020. C207.d.3224
• McCormack, Jo, Murray Pratt, and Alistair Rolls eds. Hexagonal Variations Diversity, Plurality and Reinvention in Contemporary France. Amsterdam; New York: Rodopi, 2011. 563:6.c.201.21 and ebook
• Morris, Jenny ed. Encounters with Strangers: Feminism and Disability. London: Women’s Press, 1996. 9001.d.9626
• Roussel, Céline and Vennetier, Soline eds. Discours et représentations du handicap: perspectives culturelles. Paris: Classiques Garnier, 2019. C216.c.761
• Scelles, Régine, Albert Ciccone, Simone Korff-Sausse, Sylvain Missonnier, Roger Salbreux eds. Handicap, identité sexuée et vie sexuelle. Toulouse: Érès, 2010. Ebook.
• Stiker, Henri-Jacques. Les métamorphoses du handicap de 1970 à nos jours: soi-même, avec les autres. Grenoble: Presses universitaires de Grenoble, 2009. C207.d.3059

Irene Fabry-Tehranchi