CFP for Special Issue of JLCDS. Human Conditions: Disability and Life Writing

Call for Papers
Special Issue of Journal of Literary and Cultural Disability Studies (JLCDS)

Human Conditions: Disability and Life Writing

Guest Editor, G. Thomas Couser

Papers welcome on any aspect of this broad topic. I wish to encourage breadth across time, across cultures, and across media: thus, "life writing" should be understood to include non-print media (such as blogs) and even non-written forms of representation, such as documentary film, YouTube videos, and more. The following questions, then, are meant to be provocative and suggestive, rather than exhaustive.

How have recent developments in media affected representation of disability?

How has the growth of self-publishing (which effectively bypasses any editorial gate-keepers) affected representation of disability?

Are new categories of disability being represented?

How "representative" (inclusive) is the representation of disability in life writing? That is, has life writing showcased some disabilities or impairments and tended to eclipse others?

Are developmental disabilities adequately represented, both qualitatively and quantitatively, in life writing? Also, how diverse is the representation of disability in life writing in terms of ethnicity, race, and national origin?

How does the representation of disability in life writing vary from nation to nation, culture to culture? That is, have some cultures been more receptive to it than others? Is there significant disability life writing before Helen Keller's?

Pre-submission inquiries welcome.
Proposals to G.T.Couser@hofstra.edu by 1 September 2009, complete
papers by 14 February 2010.