Disability and Life Writing: Special Issue of the Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies now available

Research Summary: Disability and Life Writing

Publication Type: Special Issue, Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies, Volume 5, Issue 3

Guest Editor: G. Thomas Couser (Hofstra University)

Primary Topics: Life writing narratives, disability representation, nineteenth-century asylum accounts, cognitive disability discourse, community-centered perspectives

Featured Articles: Six peer-reviewed contributions examining lyrical pain expression, historical disability documentation, violence and victimhood narratives, public spectacle representations, and plural disability community voices

Contributing Institutions: Hofstra University, Skidmore College, Kent State University, George Washington University, SUNY College at Old Westbury

Scholarly Focus: Integrates literary analysis with disability studies to examine how individuals and communities represent lived disability experience through autobiographical and cultural texts

Methodological Approach: Interdisciplinary humanities-based inquiry bridging disability studies, life writing theory, and critical representation analysis

Disability and Life Writing
Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies (Volume 5, Issue 3)
Guest Editor: G. Thomas Couser

Articles
Introduction: Disability and Life Writing
G. Thomas Couser (Hofstra University)
On a Scale from 1 to 10: Life Writing and Lyrical Pain
Susannah Mintz (Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY)
Disability and Self Life Writing: Reports from the Nineteenth Century Asylum
Sara Newman (Kent State University)
The Reclamation of Anna Agnew: Violence, Victimhood, and the Uses of Cure
Kathleen Brian (George Washington University)
Disabling Spectacles: Representations of Trig Palin and Cognitive Disability
Reed Cooley (George Washington University)
Plural Singularities: The Disability Community in Life Writing Texts
Margaret Torrell (State University of New York, College at Old Westbury