Dialogues with the Blind: Literary Depictions of Blindness and Visual Art

The article examines ways in which blindness and visual art are paired in a selection of visual culture theory and fictional texts. In many instances blindness functions as a metaphor connoting innocence or lack of agency. Blind people fascinate visual culture theorists for their putative reliance on touch rather than vision. But for some fiction writers, blind characters are interesting because they rely on language and thus can launch meditations on the writer’s own artistic processes.