The nineteenth century saw a new age of public health. Britons experienced rapid shifts in the theory and practice of medicine as a result of the professionalization of science, the rise of teaching hospitals, the emergence of new and often controversial or conflicting medical diagnoses, and the desire to find cures for recurring pandemics. Factory work, railroads, and urban living conditions during the Industrial Revolution also brought their own forms of injury and chronic disability as well as a new emphasis on the importance of able bodies. Charitable efforts and institutions in support of those with disabilities boomed, but at the same time, people with disabilities were increasingly ushered into workhouses and asylums. We will read novellas, novels, and memoirs of the period that depicted the experience of disability. What forms of pathology existed and how did these pathologies intersect with the categories of gender, class, race, and sexuality? How did literature represent or even challenge these cultural depictions?

Our course sessions will be seminar-based and we will focus on delving deeply into the texts through close reading as well as developing our own critical voices through ambitious, well-supported arguments. Our emphasis will be on: reading closely to appreciate the literary techniques writers used to construct and/or question depictions and experiences of disability; analyzing sociological texts for their medical and cultural meanings and implications; evaluating arguments in literary criticism; and building relationships between literary texts and historical and sociological context to deepen our understanding of the authors’ aesthetic and cultural contributions.