Enfreakment: Disability as Narrative Spectacle in Theodor Storm's "Eine Malerarbeit" and Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach's "Die arme Kleine"

This article uses "enfreakment" as an analytical category to show how and to what effect two nineteenth-century texts, Theodor Storm's "Eine Malerarbeit" and Marie von Ebner Eschenbachs "Die arme Kleine," portray disability. Narrative and visual enfreakment techniques work toward painting disabled characters as deviant or pitiable—as freaks. The representation of disability in this way serves the creation of narrative spectacles through which narrators can articulate their beliefs and doubts concerning traditional value systems surrounding the family and the body. Portraying disability in this way allows them to convey these ideas to their audiences and ultimately drives their stories forward. Analyzing the underlying mechanisms of enfreakment uncovers the discursive practices of representing and stylizing bodies, specifically bodies with disabilities, and how they become laden with meaning. Doing so brings into view exclusionary social practices as well as moments of destabilization (and reinforcement) of established norms and ideologies that otherwise would have remained unnoticed.