Tag: Mitchell and Snyder

Tabitha Robinson’s final project write-up and video

Major project write-up

Revealing the Son: Disability as Narrative Prosthesis in the Gospel of John

For my major project, I chose to research disability in the Bible. After reading a great chapter by Anna Rebecca Solevag in her book Negotiating the Disabled Body, called “John and the Symbolic Significance of Disability,” I narrowed my focus down to the gospel of John. I chose John because there were only three instances of disability found in the book, but they all demonstrated the same point—that the purpose of disability is to be healed, showing Jesus’ power as God’s son. I did some research into the ancient world for context, which actually tied into another class I’m taking, Greek and Roman Religion. I applied the things I learned in that class about ancient views on disability and healing. I found that the ancient view of disability was rather complex. On one hand, babies born with some kind of disability might be seen as a bad omen; on the other hand, soldiers who were disabled in battle might be treated with glory. As I researched, I realized that the stories in John don’t strictly reflect either of those views, although there are aspects of the first. Instead, disability is something to be used by Jesus to prove his divinity.

I was originally going to write a research paper, but as I started to compile information, I thought visual aids would be helpful. I decided to create a PowerPoint and write a script for my presentation. I’ve made presentations this way in online classes and found it to be a flexible format—it feels like a traditional in-class presentation, but it’s a recording. (There’s less pressure on me as the presenter, and the audience can watch it anytime or however they want.) The PowerPoint turned out to be a good idea. When talking about the ancient world, it’s hard to visualize sometimes what is happening. I found examples of ancient art, statues, pictures of archaeological sites, and artistic renderings in my presentation. I also like using PowerPoint to emphasize important points and allow the audience to read important quotes for themselves.

I tied my project into our class material in a few different ways. First, I reached beyond the material of the class and used other works by authors we’ve read. Using Mitchell and Snyder’s Narrative Prosthesis, I defined the concept of “narrative prosthesis” and connected it to what’s happening in John. I used examples from our readings to help define narrative prosthesis, connecting it to “Cathedral” by Carver, Garland-Thompson’s writings on Freakery, and Weise’s “Nondisabled Demands.” I used Braddock and Parish’s “An Institutional History of Disability” to explain views of disability in the ancient world. That piece proved extremely helpful in my research, and I used it in my project quite a bit, expanding on their ideas to fit my topic. The topic I chose also fits into several of the larger themes we’ve explored in this class, such as the history of disability, how religious views affect disability, the representation of disabled characters in literature, and how to know if representation in a text is progressive or not.

I hereby pledge upon my word of honor that I have neither given nor received unauthorized help on this work.        Tabitha Robinson

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Major Project video

Lisa Gisselquist’s Class Summary for September 9th

On September 9th, the class discussed several pieces including “Introduction” from The Biopolitics of Disability by David Mitchell and Sharon Snyder and three fairytales by Oscar Wilde entitled “The Fisherman and His Soul,” “The Happy Prince” and “The Star-Child.” Though there was a poem reading assigned for this class, we did not have time to cover it. The class was broken into three main parts: Professor Foss explaining the terms from Mitchell and Snyder piece, large group discussion of said piece, and small group discussion of the fairytales. The first section helped to provide clarity to the Mitchell and Snyder piece through a discussion of the terms; based on this information, the second section then discussed the ramifications of neoliberalism in the modern world before we split into small groups to discuss how the characters in the fairytales could be considered as disability-aligned.

To help ensure comprehension both for the following discussion and in general, Professor Foss began with a discussion of Mitchell and Snyder’s piece, specifically all of the terms involved. The first term, biopolitics, designates processes of managing population resources through demographic record-keeping at the state level. This connects to neoliberalism, in which people, especially those with disabilities, are being channeled to have a consumer identity. It argues that all of the disabilities can be ‘solved’ by one product/medicine or another. Society is being driven to think that we have shifted away from eugenics and institutionalization and have become a more accepting society. In reality, disabled people are pushed to believe that they need to normalize themselves by using products, as neoliberalism wants. Finally, ablenationalism, the last piece of the puzzle, joins nationalism with the opportunities of ability that come with being a citizen. This simple explanation helped to lead the discussion into the actual specifics of how this is found in today’s world.

The large discussion centered around the general experience of the students with neoliberalism. Many students mentioned their own struggles with feeling like they needed medication and how they were concerned that they might become addicted to it. The conversation also turned to some of the problems with neoliberalism. For example, neoliberalism sells advantages that were not available in previous societies and are not available in most third-world countries. Furthermore, some people believe that medication saved their life to make them who they want to be, but for many others, medication does not work. This leaves them as outcasts in a supposedly ‘accepting’ society. One student even questioned how we could form solid conclusions when it comes to a certain disability or mental illness when the conditions are different depending on the person. The professor responded by bringing up how a lot more money went into curing Alzheimer’s and cancer than went into mental health research. Towards the end, one student asked whether drug addiction and alcoholism would be considered a disability. The general consensus was that it would be. For the most part, this discussion centered around students struggles living in a neoliberal society, which further supports the authors’ point about its failings.

For the remainder of class, we broke into small groups to discuss Oscar Wilde’s fairytales. In my small group, we started by discussing “The Star-Child” and how the transformation of the Star-Child into a disabled character was a punishment for pride and prejudice until he learned his lesson. This made the discussion of him being the ‘disability-aligned’ character difficult. How could his actions cause or cure disability? We then turned briefly to “The Happy Prince” and discussed the possibility of the Happy Prince having a mobility issue that caused him to need the sparrow to do things for him before moving to “The Fisherman and His Soul.” In this tale, we thought that the mermaid and the Sea-folk were the disability-aligned characters. However, we struggled to make sense of the role that the soul played in the story or how the fisherman could become ‘disabled’ and join the sea-folk but then recover on a whim. Our final conclusion was that if this story was looked at as a disability-aligned story, the witches’ involvement with the devil; the implications that the Sea-folk, as the disabled characters, had no souls; and the role of the soul in the story made it difficult for this story to be advocating for the disabled. However, as Oscar Wilde probably never intended them to be taken this way, they still serve to create a discussion of the treatment of disabled people (exp. The rejection of the sea-folk by the priest).

Throughout the class, there were two main themes: Neoliberalism, and whether characters were disability-aligned. The general consensus of the discussion of Neoliberalism was to detail some of the larger issues that it creates. As for the disability-aligned characters, Oscar Wilde’s fairytales, similar to Frankenstein, can convey lessons to the audience but become problematic when carefully examined. Overall, this class served as a fascinating discussion of the Mitchell and Snyder piece while also continuing our evaluation of disability-aligned characters.

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