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Call for Review: ‘Extraordinary Bodies: Figuring Physical Disability in American Culture and Literature’ by Rosemarie Garland Thomson

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By CentreForMedicalHumanities.org Research Team | Last verified: September 2026

Research Summary: Extraordinary Bodies: Figuring Physical Disability in American Culture and Literature

Category: Literary scholarship and disability studies
Author: Rosemarie Garland Thomson
Publication Year: 2016
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Primary Focus: Social constructions and representations of disability in American culture and literature, framing disability as minority discourse rather than medical pathology
Key Literary Works Examined: Uncle Tom's Cabin (Harriet Beecher Stowe), Life in the Iron Mills (Rebecca Harding Davis), African-American novels by Toni Morrison and Audre Lorde, and freak show cultural rituals
Theoretical Contribution: Inaugurates disability studies as a field by revising oppressive narratives and revealing liberatory representations of disabled figures
Review Guidelines: Submissions limited to 1,000 words maximum; reviewer guidelines available upon request

We are looking for a literary specialist to review Extraordinary Bodies: Figuring Physical Disability in American Culture and Literature (Rosemarie Garland Thomson, 2016), which explores the social constructions and representations of disability in the United States. Further information about the themes under study can be found at Colombia University Press.

‘Extraordinary Bodies’ inaugurates a new field of disability studies by framing disability as a minority discourse rather than a medical one, revising oppressive narratives and revealing liberatory ones. The book examines disabled figures in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Rebecca Harding Davis’s Life in the Iron Mills, in African-American novels by Toni Morrison and Audre Lorde, and in the popular cultural ritual of the freak show.

If you would like to review Extraordinary Bodies (no more than 1,000 words in length), then please consult our reviewer’s guidelines and email our reviews editor with a short explanation of why you are well placed to review the book.

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