Enforcing Normalcy: Disability, Deafness, and the Body [Paperback]

Lennard J. Davis (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1859840078 | ISBN-13: 978-1859840078 | Publication Date: December 1, 1995

In this highly original study of the cultural assumptions governing our conception of people with disabilities, Lennard J. Davis argues forcefully against 'ableist' discourse and for a complete recasting of the category of disability itself. Enforcing Normalcy surveys the emergence of a cluster of concepts around the term 'normal' as these matured in Western Europe and the United States over the past 250 years. Linking such notions to the concurrent emergence of discourses about the nation, Davis shows how the modern nation-state contracted its identity on the backs not only of colonized subjects, but of its physically disabled minority. In a fascinating chapter on contemporary cultural theory, Davis explores the pitfalls of privileging the figure of sight in conceptualizing the nature of textuality. And in the treatment of nudes and fragmented bodies in Western art, he shows how the ideal of physical wholeness is both demanded and denied in the classical aesthetics of representation. Enforcing Normalcy redraws the boundaries of political and cultural discourse. By insisting that disability be added to the familiar triad of race, class, and gender, the book challenges progressives to expand the limits of their thinking about human oppression.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Lennard J. Davis is Assistant Professor of English at Binghampton University. He has written on disability for the Nation. His previous books include Factual Fictions and Resisting Novels.

Product Details

• Paperback: 228 pages
• Publisher: Verso (December 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1859840078
• ISBN-13: 978-1859840078
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #412,682 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent study of 'the tyranny of the norm' - and much more, April 18, 2001

By 

Eileen Galen (USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Enforcing Normalcy: Disability, Deafness, and the Body (Paperback)

This book, seven strong chapters and a brief, personal Preface, ably discusses and deconstructs historic notions of disability ("the missing term in the race, class gender triad")and fully describes the harrowingly destructive - because so socially, culturally, and psychically damaging - concept of 'the norm,' historic uses (and abuse) of the body, and with it: the body politic.

Dr Davis supplies the reader with a bit of context. He grew up as the hearing child of Deaf parents in New York's South Bronx, where his parents, he reports, "were as good as any other person in the South Bronx, which is to say they were pretty badly off."

Chapter Four, "Nationalism and Deafness: The Nineteenth Century" offers historic perspectives on deafness, including the fact that by the beginning of the nineteenth century, sign language had become a transnational language. Anyone fluent in sign language could communicate with any other signer - worldwide. This is no small thing. The Deaf "became a subgroup within each state throughout Europe." Some additional topics are: oralism and sign language, disability, class, nationalism, eugenics, politics, poverty, industrialization, and health. The bigger concepts of inclusion and exclusion are touched upon, too.

"Deafness and Insight" is a challenging and complex chapter in which Davis explores "deafness as a critical modality." A main assertion throughout this book is that the concept of the "normal" body informs cultural assumptions about art, literature, and the totality, in fact, of culture.

Other chapters with much to offer and challenge the reader are "Universalizing Marginality," in which Davis explores the reasons behind the intense cultural and philosophical interest during the European eighteenth century of deafness. Health and 'fitness,' images of the 'normal' and the not-normal body, and the fact that disability is most often an acquired thing (you get hurt or get old - and wind up with a 'disability.') are investigated. Art, literature, and media are cited with success.

This is a book that is thought-provoking, remarkably informative, and completely worth the effort it requires. Dr. Davis'world view is clearly presented and wholly graspable. His methods of analysis are consistently intellectually muscular, Occasionally he ventures into academic methodologies that are a bit out of the range of the common reader. Tough stuff, and worth the effort. Many pages of endnotes, a (long) list of works cited, and a very good index.

5.0 out of 5 stars A necessary text for disability theory, January 6, 2011

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R. Harry - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Enforcing Normalcy: Disability, Deafness, and the Body (Paperback)

Anyone interested in either the history or theory of disability should read this book. I would think it would also be helpful for those with disabilities and their family members to find a social-historical context regarding their experiences. My favoroite chapter was the one regarding how statisitics, Sir Francis Galton, and eugenics are connected to formulate our current conceptions of what we call "normal". He also makes connections to the positon/role of disability in both literature and art. Highly recommended.