Screen Fictions and Discourses of Disability

Political correctness often stifles discussion and analysis and diffuses the potential value of representations of disability and impairment to interrogate our prejudices and assumptions. Through an exploration of the impact of popular screen representations of impaired and disabled people, and a series of interviews with Disability Studies academics and activists and students, this book considers what is at stake in being entertained by, researching and writing about media representations of disabled people, disability and impairment. Screen Fictions and Discourses of Disability promotes the study of disability as part of the media curriculum in much the same way as studies of race, gender, class and sexuality are seen as pivotal to the identity of the subject. It does so by first investigating why this hasn't happened before. The obstacles to inclusion are analysed, from anxieties about appropriating the politics, identity and experiences of marginalised and stigmatised people as an object of study, to the fear of the abject, and the avoidance of seemingly 'worthy' or 'political' discourses in favour of normalising and entertaining subjects.