On “Savage and Deformed Slave”: Bodily Difference in Selected Contemporary Productions of The Tempest in Poland

Dis/ability is a dynamic category produced in a complex constellation of factors that includes not only stigmatised mental and physical constraints or physiological differences, but also a manifestation of incapacity that is recognised or produced by law, social norms and the very way of thinking about the nature of bodily vulnerability. The meanings of dis/ability are thus culturally and historically dependent. Therefore, the manner in which dis/ability is presented on a theatrical stage can be considered not only as an important factor influencing the interpretation of a given production but also as a test for the dominant thinking of disability at a given point of time, in a given culture. The departure point for this paper is a brief discussion of the visibility of medieval models of dis/ability in Shakespeare’s plays and a reflection on how the reception of these dramatic texts has changed over time depending on the paradigmatic shifts in thinking about dis/ability, especially with the emergence of disability studies and the growing theoretical reflection on the position of dis/ability in theatre. An especially interesting case in point is the reception of Caliban as a character whose stigmatisation can be expressed through bodily difference. Thus, the paper focuses on what seems to be a systematic aberrant decoding of The Tempest in three twenty-first century Polish productions of the play.

Turning disability into a business: Disabled entrepreneurs’ anomalous bodily capital

In a time and place where being impaired is equated to being of lesser economic value, some disabled people take matters into their own hands by creating their own job and converting their bodily difference into bodily capital. This paper uses a Bourdieuan lens to discover what sets apart disabled entrepreneurs who build their business around disability and those who do not. Building on the experiences of 40 entrepreneurs, we outline the existence of certain bodily and mental schemata that lead to a body habituated to run a business centred around one’s impairment and experience of living as a disabled person in an ableist world. We specify such ‘anomalous’ bodily capital and discuss the constraints to its conversion related to the social environment and impairment effects. This study speaks back to the literature on disability in organizational contexts by extending the ‘value in disability’ debate whilst remaining cognizant of the danger of ‘supercrip’ stereotyping and disability ghettoization. In addition, the complex structure/agency interplay inherent to the practice of leveraging anomalous bodily capital offers a contribution to entrepreneurship research that tends to adhere to a simplistic view of the body.

Diabetes, Art, and Data Resonance

This paper presents the project Hemo-resonance #1, the first in a series of art works that aim to open alternative pathways for thinking about and practicing diabetes. I begin by discussing the centrality of data collection via self-tracking for the management of Type 1 diabetes, and the ways this data collection orients understandings of diabetes and the diabetic body. Diabetic self-management is typically aimed at finding patterns in one’s data, establishing cause and effect relationships, and understanding trends in the body’s operation so that the diabetic can modulate behaviour to optimize health outcomes. Arguing that approaching data in different ways can provide insights into diabetic experience and relationships that extend beyond the goal-oriented approach of always doing better, I offer “data resonance” as a way of following other trajectories of data and bodies. Data resonance provides sensory-rich materialisations of data in ways that seek to detach themselves from the typical focus on the legibility or interpretability of the data. This suspension of habitual orientations to data makes space for thinking of bodies, data, and the relationships between the two in new ways, and offering meditations on the value of co-corporeality, human-non-human relationships, and bodily difference.

Embodied practices of prosthesis

While the prosthesis is often thought of as a technology or an artefact used to ‘fix’ or make ‘whole’ a disabled body, it has also become an important figuration and metaphor for thinking about disabled embodiment as an emblematic manifestation of bodily difference and mobility. Furthermore, the ambiguity and broadness of prosthesis as an object and a concept, as well as its potential as a theoretical and analytical thinking tool, show up in widely different areas of popular culture, art and academic scholarship. In this article, we explore the opportunities of the ways in which prosthesis might be a helpful and productive fi gure in relation to framing, analyzing and understanding certain healthcare-related practices that are not traditionally associated with disability. Our aim is to suggest new ways of building onto the idea of the performative value of the prosthetic fi gure and its logics as a continuum through which very different forms of embodied practices could be meaningfully understood and analyzed. Thus, we argue that the logic of the prosthesis can be helpful in uncovering tensions related to idealistic and dominant ideas about health and embodiment. First, we engage with the theoretical discussions from cultural studies, including critical disability studies, in which we broaden the scope of the concept of prosthesis. Second, we introduce and discuss two illustrative case examples in the form of dance therapeutic practices for people with Parkinson’s disease and group therapeutic practices in male-friendly spaces. In doing so, we seek to raise new questions about the ongoing cultivation of bodily and health-related interventions through the lens of the prosthetic spectrum, which we have labelled embodied practices of prosthesis.

Disability, Society, and Personal Transformation

The social model of disability claims that disadvantage from disability is primarily a result of the social response to bodily difference. Social modellers typically draw two normative conclusions: first, that society has a responsibility to address disability disadvantage as a matter of justice, not charity; second, that the appropriate way of addressing this disadvantage is to change social institutions themselves, to better fit for bodily difference, rather than to normalize bodies to fit existing institutions. This paper offers a qualified defense of both inferences. Social institutions have reasons of justice to fix disability disadvantage, because the choice of institutions that contingently favor those whose bodies are statistically typical incurs responsibilities to compensate those who disfavored, in that choice. Among other things, this responsibility implies that societies should not simultaneously materially disadvantage disabled people, and also withhold symbolic resources, by demanding a presumption in favor of personal transformation – thereby, undermining the social conditions for disability pride.

“I'm Just an Armless Guitarist”: Tony Melendez, Disability, and the Social Construction of Virtuosity

In 1987, Tony Melendez—a guitarist born without arms who plays the instrument with his feet—played at a youth rally for Pope John Paul II. Immediately after his performance, the Pope kissed Melendez and instructed him to continue “giving hope” through his music. Although the guitar accompaniment of confessional, singer-songwriter music is rarely considered virtuosic, Tony Melendez's bodily difference makes his ability to sonically pass as what he calls a “common player” an impactful display of skill for his audiences. Because Melendez's body is treated as simultaneously virtuosic and disabled, his example foregrounds the social construction of both categories and challenges the tendency to isolate either in the individual body. Rather than suggesting a sort of qualified approach to “disabled” virtuosity, this article argues that there is no such thing as unqualified virtuosity. The presumed limitations and possibilities of bodies, instruments, and repertoires always inform our understandings of skill, but we are not always explicitly aware of them. Through interviews and analysis of his performances and their media representations, I show how bodily difference and the complex subject positions of both performers and audiences contribute to what counts as skill, creative labor, and agency within a particular context.

“In that One the Ālif is Missing”: Eunuchs and the Politics of Masculinity in Early Colonial North India

Although ostensibly gendered as men and frequently maintaining independent, patriarchal households, enslaved eunuchs (khwājasarās) in pre- and early colonial regimes in South Asia were often mocked for their supposed effeminacy, bodily difference, and pretensions to normative masculinity. In the Mughal successor state of Awadh (1722-1856), such mockery grew more pronounced in the wake of growing financial demands from the British East India Company and attempts by eunuchs to alienate property with wills and testamentary bequests. Through examples of verbal derision directed at eunuchs, this essay shows that not only did ideas of normative masculinity serve as a vehicle for Awadh’s rulers to defend their sovereign authority from colonial encroachment, but that notions of normative manhood continued to inform eunuchs’ own self-perception into the nineteenth century.

Diskurser om defekte kroppe

The notion of discourse is useful in examining the various ways in which impairments of the body are construed. In the last several hundred years of Western history, bodily difference has been the object of Christian charity, pedagogy, medical classification and rehabilitation. The article reviews these shifts in discourse and points to some fundamental assumptions about difference in Euro-American culture. In non-Westem cultures, discourses on bodily anomalies can also be traced. However, discourse analysis of the Foucaultian variety

AGING BODIES IN PARADISE? AN ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY OF FANTASY FEST IN KEY WEST, FLORIDA

Dominant cultural constructions of aging bodies, particularly those of women, as unattractive and asexual may be challenged within politically and socially progressive leisure environments, like Key West, Florida, that promote out-group acceptance, collectivity, and cultural diversity. However, this possibility receives limited scholarly attention. Addressing this gap, our study employs observational and interview data (n=60) collected in 2017 and 2018 at Key West’s Fantasy Fest – an annual event marketed as a “10-day party in paradise for grown-ups.” The festival, drawing as many as 100,000 people, cultivates a relaxed atmosphere permissive of nudity and theatrical body adornment, including body paint and costume. This feature makes it an ideal site for examining the effect of inequalities, including age and gender, on body displays and social reactions to them. Data analysis revealed four themes centering on aging bodies – Judging Bodies, Limiting Body Displays, Displaying Bodily Difference, and Liberating Bodies. Age and gender inequality strongly influenced judgments of attractiveness and sexual appeal, contributing to older participants’ more limited body displays. Nevertheless, both young and old participants collectively contributed to creating a liberating environment that celebrates bodily difference and encourages cross-age interaction. While limited to one site with a unique political and social climate, our study suggests the potential of progressive leisure environments to broaden notions of aging bodies and encourage cross-age connections.