Project MUSE®: Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies - Latest Articles
https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/456
Project MUSE®: Latest articles in Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies.daily12026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00text/htmlen-USVol 3 (2009) through current issueLatest Articles: Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability StudiesTWOProject MUSE®Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies1757-64661757-6458Latest articles in Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies. Feed provided by Project MUSE®The Paradox of Purity: Envisioning Theoretical Directions for Critical OCD Studies
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/984672
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Obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) is a psychiatric condition defined by the presence of “obsessions” and “compulsions” (APA 237). According to the official diagnostic criteria, obsessions are reoccurring thoughts that produce “marked anxiety or distress” (APA 237). While OCD is commonly associated with concerns about contamination, the content of obsessive thoughts can be wide-ranging, often centering on perceived disorder in one’s environment or potential sources of danger and uncertainty in the self. Examples of the latter include fears of committing violent acts, or experiencing sexual desires that conflict with one’s values or sense of identity (Aardema and O’Connor 183). The themes of obsessions can also
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/456/image/coversmallThe Paradox of Purity: Envisioning Theoretical Directions for Critical OCD Studies2026-03-02text/htmlen-USThe Paradox of Purity: Envisioning Theoretical Directions for Critical OCD Studies2026-03-022026TWOProject MUSE®643982026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-03-02Disability, Shared Vulnerability, and Care Communities in Mrs. Spring Fragrance
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/984673
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On May 31st, 1900, The San Francisco Call ran an editorial entitled “Clean Out Chinatown,” exhorting local health officials to burn down San Francisco’s Chinatown. The editorial’s main proposition is that Chinese immigrants are to blame for the frequent epidemics of communicable diseases, including leprosy, small pox, and bubonic plague. The editorial, though it admits that there were not any confirmed cases of bubonic plague in the immigrant community, relies on a single corpse that displayed symptoms of bubonic plague as evidence and argues San Francisco has “an imperative duty [of] the thorough cleansing of the plague spot, even if it have [sic] to be done by fire” (6). The editorial justifies its logic by
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/456/image/coversmallDisability, Shared Vulnerability, and Care Communities in Mrs. Spring Fragrance2026-03-02text/htmlen-USDisability, Shared Vulnerability, and Care Communities in Mrs. Spring Fragrance2026-03-022026TWOProject MUSE®639672026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-03-02Portraiture and Disability: Cripping Retrospective Diagnosis
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/984674
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For people living with bodily and especially facial difference, historical portraiture offers a vibrant potential archive. Identifying, opening, and using such historical archives creates opportunities for diverse, even conflicting interpretations, research, and audiences—from the controversial retrospective diagnosis, to the minutely historicized, to the creative and flagrantly anachronistic.This article explores two interpretative avenues. The first is the practice of reading historical sources medically, often referred to as retrospective diagnosis. This is a long-standing but controversial technique for historical investigation—at its worst, a “methodically dubious procedure” and “futile attempt by modern
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/456/image/coversmallPortraiture and Disability: Cripping Retrospective Diagnosis2026-03-02text/htmlen-USPortraiture and Disability: Cripping Retrospective Diagnosis2026-03-022026TWOProject MUSE®915942026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-03-02Painting in Total Darkness
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/984675
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The idea of a blind artist may seem both implausible and dangerous (Kleege 96). I would like to argue, however, that vision—the things we see, should not see, or cannot unsee—is dangerous. What happens when vision collapses, when images and language coalesce into nothingness, into an ultimate content overload? When symbols become indistinguishable from their meaning, are the other senses forced to respond? Images have come to shape/distort our reality, our perspective of reality insofar as it is unreal. The photograph is violent; not because it shows violent things, but because on each occasion it fills the sight by force, and because in it nothing can be refused or transformed (Barthes 90). With the photograph, we
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/456/image/coversmallPainting in Total Darkness2026-03-02text/htmlen-USPainting in Total Darkness2026-03-022026TWOProject MUSE®548202026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-03-02Challenging Anecdotal Associations Between Autism and Violence through Elizabeth Moon’s The Speed of Dark
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/984676
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The turn of the twenty-first century has seen the emergence of a new, troubling, and imprecise association between autistic identity and notions of lethal dangerousness in the United States and other anglophone countries such as Canada and the UK. I argue that the connection is a folk one circulating around the figure of the mass shooter but with effects that are porous and stigmatizing and which effect cultural perceptions of people on the spectrum. This article begins by situating the emergence of this association in the context of early twenty-first century anecdotes in mass media and autism research, showing how it effects people diagnosed as autistic. I then turn to fiction to deepen my analysis; I highlight
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/456/image/coversmallChallenging Anecdotal Associations Between Autism and Violence through Elizabeth Moon’s The Speed of Dark2026-03-02text/htmlen-USChallenging Anecdotal Associations Between Autism and Violence through Elizabeth Moon’s The Speed of Dark2026-03-022026TWOProject MUSE®695822026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-03-02Kullanum Bharyayum: Exploring the Representation of Dwarfism and Masculinity in Malayalam Cinema
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/984677
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The identities of people with disabilities have been produced and established through diverse art forms, and visual media is no exception. According to Tom Shakespeare, disability is the outcome of barriers imposed by environmental or policy interventions. For decades, therefore, the social model has been used to disseminate the idea that problems or difficulties encountered by people with disabilities are not the results of physical deficits but oppression and exclusion. Society’s racist, sexist, and disabling features give rise to social disadvantages, so the primary focus of the social model is the removal of barriers, changing the public’s attitude towards people with disabilities, and erasing the marks of
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/456/image/coversmallKullanum Bharyayum: Exploring the Representation of Dwarfism and Masculinity in Malayalam Cinema2026-03-02text/htmlen-USKullanum Bharyayum: Exploring the Representation of Dwarfism and Masculinity in Malayalam Cinema2026-03-022026TWOProject MUSE®571642026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-03-02Interspecies Access Intimacy in My Beloved Monster
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/984678
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The “feline kiss” marks an early moment of interspecies access intimacy in Caleb Carr’s My Beloved Monster. After a kittenhood of neglect and aggression toward shelter workers, Masha, the feline protagonist, makes her move: “She stood on my thigh, pushed her face up to mine, and gave me the supreme demonstration of acceptance and affection: the touching of noses, the ‘feline kiss’” (24). This marks the beginning of a seventeen-year intimate bond. It is this moment that led us to coin the phrase “interspecies access intimacy,” a concept that fits the bond they share. Building on Mia Mingus’s access intimacy—“that elusive, hard to describe feeling when someone ‘gets’ your access needs” (par. 4)—we understand
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/456/image/coversmallInterspecies Access Intimacy in My Beloved Monster2026-03-02text/htmlen-USInterspecies Access Intimacy in My Beloved Monster2026-03-022026TWOProject MUSE®258702026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-03-02Letters from Red Farm: The Untold Story of the Friendship Between Helen Keller and Journalist Joseph Edgar Chamberlin by Elizabeth Emerson (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/984679
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Letters from Red Farm tells the story of Helen Keller who, born in 1880 in Alabama, USA, lost her sight and hearing at nineteen months old. In 1887, Annie Sullivan, a visually impaired teacher, began teaching Keller through touch and repetition, enabling her to communicate using sign language and braille. With Sullivan’s guidance, Keller learned to read, write in braille, and speak. She graduated from Radcliffe College in 1904 and became the first deaf-blind person awarded a bachelor’s degree. Keller became a renowned advocate for Deaf and blind people, travelling extensively to advocate for disabled people. She authored several books, including her autobiography, The Story of My Life (1903), and received numerous
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/456/image/coversmallLetters from Red Farm: The Untold Story of the Friendship Between Helen Keller and Journalist Joseph Edgar Chamberlin by Elizabeth Emerson (review)2026-03-02text/htmlen-USLetters from Red Farm: The Untold Story of the Friendship Between Helen Keller and Journalist Joseph Edgar Chamberlin by Elizabeth Emerson (review)2026-03-022026TWOProject MUSE®128382026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-03-02The Mark of Slavery: Disability, Race, and Gender in Antebellum America by Jennifer L. Barclay (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/984680
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The Mark of Slavery is a difficult book to review. It is not a book that shies away from hard truths and it is one of the few books which considers disability within the institution of slavery. On the other hand, it is not without its problems, but this, I think, stems from the enormity and complexity of the topic the author is attempting to address. Indeed, Jennifer L. Barclay deserves credit for this somewhat impossible project. She considers the largely ignored question of how disability and slavery intersect in American history from a variety of thematic angles, with sensitivity and insight, acknowledging the gaps in available historical records, particularly with respect to the perspectives of disabled slaves
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/456/image/coversmallThe Mark of Slavery: Disability, Race, and Gender in Antebellum America by Jennifer L. Barclay (review)2026-03-02text/htmlen-USThe Mark of Slavery: Disability, Race, and Gender in Antebellum America by Jennifer L. Barclay (review)2026-03-022026TWOProject MUSE®131742026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-03-02See Me Rolling: On Disability, Equality and Ten-Point Turns by Lottie Jackson (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/984681
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Lottie Jackson’s debut book, See Me Rolling: On Disability, Equality and Ten-Point Turns, follows a fittingly ambitious path, combining elements of both memoir and essay collection, and inviting a wide readership while drawing on an eclectic range of cultural and academic sources. The eight chapters making up the body of the book cover an impressive breadth and variety of relationships between disability and health/illness, love/friendship, transport/travel, schooling/education, university life, fashion/beauty, technology, and employment/workplaces.In the introduction, Jackson describes how the book represents her efforts to make sense of her disability (a rare, non-progressive, and generalized muscle-weakness
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/456/image/coversmallSee Me Rolling: On Disability, Equality and Ten-Point Turns by Lottie Jackson (review)2026-03-02text/htmlen-USSee Me Rolling: On Disability, Equality and Ten-Point Turns by Lottie Jackson (review)2026-03-022026TWOProject MUSE®121402026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-03-02About the Contributors
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/984682
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Aju Aravind (draravinda@mits.ac.in) is Associate Professor in the Department of English and Foreign Languages at Madanapalle Institute of Technology and Science, Andhra Pradesh, India.Thomas Calvard (thomas.calvard@ed.ac.uk) is Senior Lecturer in Organisation Studies. His research focuses on how people make sense of social perspectives, viewpoints, limits, and boundaries in the workplace, with an emphasis on identity, diversity, technology, and ethics.Emily Cock (CockE@cardiff.ac.uk) is Senior Lecturer in Early Modern History at Cardiff University. Her research covers health and disability in the Anglophone world, c.1600– 1850. Previous publications include Rhinoplasty and the Nose in Early Modern British Medicine
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/456/image/coversmallAbout the Contributors2026-03-02text/htmlen-USAbout the Contributors2026-03-022026TWOProject MUSE®72592026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-03-02