Literature, Speech Disorders, and Disability: Talking Normal

193 Pages·2013·1.163 MB·English

by  Christopher Eagle

Literature, Speech Disorders,
and Disability
Examining representations of speech disorders in works of literature, this
fi rst collection of its kind founds a new multidisciplinary subfi eld related
but not limited to the emerging fi elds of disability studies and medical
humanities. The scope is wide-ranging both in terms of national literatures
and historical periods considered, engaging with theoretical discussions
in poststructuralism, disability studies, cultural studies, new historicism,
gender studies, sociolinguistics, trauma studies, and medical humanities.
The book’s main focus is on the development of an awareness of speech
pathology in the literary imaginary from the late-eighteenth century to
the present, studying the novel, drama, epic poetry, lyric poetry, autobiog-
raphy and autopathography, and clinical case studies and guidebooks on
speech therapy. The volume addresses a growing interest, both in popular
culture and the humanities, regarding the portrayal of conditions such as
stuttering, aphasia and mutism, along with the status of the self in rela-
tion to those conditions. Since speech pathologies are neither illnesses nor
outwardly physical disabilities, critical studies of their representation have
tended to occupy a liminal position in relation to other discourses such as
literary and cultural theory, and even disability studies. One of the primary
aims of this collection is to address this marginalization, and to position a
cultural criticism of speech pathology within literary studies.
Chris Eagle is Research Lecturer in the Writing and Society Research Centre
at the University of Western Sydney, Australia.
Routledge Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Literature
1 Environmental Criticism for the 9 Wallace Stevens and Pre-Socratic
Twenty-First Century Philosophy
Edited by Stephanie LeMenager, Metaphysics and the Play of
Teresa Shewry, and Ken Hiltner Violence
Daniel Tompsett
2 Theoretical Perspectives on
Human Rights and Literature 10 Modern Orthodoxies
Elizabeth Swanson Goldberg and Judaic Imaginative Journeys of the
Alexandra Schultheis Moore Twentieth Century
Lisa Mulman
3 Resistance to Science in
Contemporary American Poetry 11 Eugenics, Literature, and
Bryan Walpert Culture in Post-war Britain
Clare Hanson
4 Magic, Science, and Empire in
Postcolonial Literatur 12 Postcolonial Readings of Music
The Alchemical Literary in World Literature
Imagination Turning Empire on Its Ear
Kathleen J. Renk Cameron Fae Bushnell
5 The Black Female Body in 13 Stanley Cavell, Literature,
American Literature and Art and Film
Performing Identity The Idea of America
Caroline A. Brown Edited by Andrew Taylor and
Áine Kelly
6 Narratives of Migration and
Displacement in Dominican 14 William Blake and the Digital
Literature Humanities
Danny Méndez Collaboration, Participation, and
Social Media
7 The Cinema and the Origins of Jason Whittaker and Roger Whitson
Literary Modernism
Andrew Shail 15 American Studies, Ecocriticism,
and Citizenship
8 The Gothic in Contemporary Thinking and Acting in the Local
Literature and Popular Culture and Global Commons
Pop Goth Edited by Joni Adamson and
Edited by Justin D. Edwards and Kimberly N. Ruffi n
Agnieszka Soltysik Monnet
16 International Perspectives on
Feminist Ecocriticism
Edited by Greta Gaard, Simon C.
Estok, and Serpil Oppermann
17 Feminist Theory across Disciplines
Feminist Community and
American Women’s Poetry
Shira Wolosky
18 Mobile Narratives
Travel, Migration, and
Transculturation
Edited by Eleftheria Arapoglou,
Mónika Fodor, and Jopi Nyman
19 Shipwreck in Art and Literature
Images and Interpretations from
Antiquity to the Present Day
Edited by Carl Thompson
20 Literature, Speech Disorders,
and Disability
Talking Normal
Edited by Chris Eagle
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Literature, Speech Disorders,
and Disability
Talking Normal
Edited by Chris Eagle
NEW YORK LONDON
First published 2014
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Simultaneously published in the UK
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group,
an informa business
© 2014 Taylor & Francis
The right of Chris Eagle to be identified as the author of the editorial
material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted
in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Literature, speech disorders, and disability : talking normal / edited by
Christopher Eagle.
pages cm. — (Routledge Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Literature ; 20)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Speech disorders in literature. 2. European literature—History and
criticism. 3. American literature—History and criticism. I. Eagle,
Christopher, editor of compilation.
PN56.S685L58 2014
809'.933561—dc23
2013017405
ISBN13: 978-0-415-82304-3 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978-0-203-79808-9 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by IBT Global.
Contents
Introduction: Talking Normal 1
CHRIS EAGLE
1 The Construction of the Disabled Speaker: Locating Stuttering
in Disability Studies 9
JOSHUA ST. PIERRE
2 On Prophetic Stammering 24
HERBERT MARKS
3 Samuel Johnson and the Frailties of Speech 44
LAURA DAVIES
4 “Irate, with no grace of style”: Stuttering, Logorrhea, and
Disordered Speech among Male Characters in Luís Vaz de
Camões’ The Lusiads (1572) 65
VALÉRIA M. SOUZA
5 “Stuttutistics”: On Speech Disorders in Finnegans Wake 82
CHRIS EAGLE
6 Jackson’s Parrot: Samuel Beckett, Aphasic Speech Automatisms,
and Psychosomatic Language 100
LAURA SALISBURY AND CHRIS CODE
7 Staging Aphasia: Jean-Claude Van Itallie’s The Traveller and
Arthur Kopit’s Wings 124
GENE A. PLUNKA
viii Contents
8 The Poetics of Tourette’s Syndrome: Language, Neurobiology,
and Poetry 137
RONALD SCHLEIFER
9 The Visualization of the Twisted Tongue: Portrayals of
Stuttering in Film, Television, and Comic Books 162
JEFFREY JOHNSON
Contributors 177
Index 181
Introduction
Talking Normal
Chris Eagle
In a 2005 episode of the television show Curb Your Enthusiasm, there is a
scene in which the protagonist Larry David believes he has caught someone
abusing disability tags for a parking space. Noticing the man step out of
his car and walk away with no signs of physical disability, Larry David
says nothing at fi rst, but he stares at the man accusingly enough to elicit
a response.
“W-w-w-w-what?” asks the man, revealing a severe stutter.
“What’s with the walking?” replies Larry David, pointing at the
man’s license plate.
“F-f-f-f-f-uck you! I have a s-s-s-s-stutter.”
“Yeah, but you can walk!”
“L-l-l-l-look at my li-license plate. I have p-p-p-p-permission. F-f-
fucking p-prick!”
With that, the man storms off , leaving David to refl ect on the ethical impli-
cations of what has just transpired. As with so many scenes from Curb Your
Enthusiasm, Larry David’s semi-fi ctional persona has a point, but one he
makes so insensitively that we’re left wondering who is in the right, him
or his equally unsympathetic interlocutor. Is it wrong to presume someone
is not disabled, simply because there are no visible signs? Is it ever right to
ask someone to verify their disability? Finally, is a vocal impairment like
stuttering a legitimate disability, or is the stuttering man simply abusing
the system?
These questions are connected to two other scenes within the episode,
both of which stage the many pitfalls surrounding the ethics and etiquette
of disability. Before the parking lot scene, David’s character is chided by
a man in a wheelchair for using the wheelchair-access toilet in the men’s
room. This awkward bathroom encounter is still on David’s mind when
he notices the disability tags on the parked car, and it clearly acts as the
impetus for David to challenge the stuttering man. Later on, these two
moments serve as thesis and antithesis to each other in a farcical climax
where David fi nds himself at the end of a long line in another men’s room.