Woeful Afflictions: Disability and Sentimentality in Victorian America

261 Pages·1999·7.05 MB·English

by  Mary Klages

Woeful Afflictions

Woeful Afflictions
Disability and Sentimentality
in Victorian America
Mary Klages
PENN
University of Pennsylvania Press
Philadelphia
Copyright © 1999 University of Pennsylvania Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 21
Published by
University of Pennsylvania Press
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-4011
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Klages, Mary.
Woeful afflictions : disability and sentimentality in Victorian
America / Mary Klages.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 0-8122-3499-5 (acid-free paper)
ι. Handicapped — United States — History — 19th century.
2. Handicapped—United States — Public Opinion. 3. Handicapped in
mass media—History. 4. Handicapped in literature — History and
criticism. 5. Public opinion — United States. I. Title.
HV1553.K53 19 99
362.4'o973'09034 — dc2i 99-19317
CIP
For my mother,
who didn't live to see this finished
and for Tasha, who did

Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Introduction: Disability and Sentimentality ι
ι. The Semiotics of Disability ι o
2. Institutional Meanings for Blind Bodies 28
3. Sentimental Posters 56
4. The Angel in the Text 79
5. Institutional Sentimentalism 101
6. Laura Bridgman 118
7. Can the Blind Girl Speak? 146
8. Helen Keller 176
9. Redefining Disability and Sentimentality: The Miracle Worker 197
Notes 213
Bibliography 233
Index 243
Acknowledgments 249

Illustrations
ι. Samuel Gridley Howe, circa 1874 30
2. Perkins Institution, circa 1900 105
3. Dr. Howe and Laura Bridgman 124
4. Laura Bridgman teaching Oliver Caswell 134
5. Laura Bridgman, circa 1878 143
6. Title page, Incidents in the Life of a Blind Girl 150
7. Mary L. Day 151
8. Mrs. S. Helen deKroyft 164
9. Helen Keller, 1893 180
10. Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan, 1898 192