The research project connects the critical approaches of disability studies and health humanities and focuses on the narrative, cultural and discursive aspect of the concept of disability. In particular the project will develop along two main lines of investigation:
- Alzheimer’s and cognitive disability narratives,
- Dis-abiliy narratives in children’s and young adult’s narratives.
Alzheimer’s and cognitive disability’s narratives (Chiara Battisti): the proposal aims to investigate whether there are any traces of early manifestations of Alzheimer’s and other cognitive disabilities in authors’ writing, by means of a comparative textual analysis of works written before, and during/after diagnosis. The proposal also aims to determine whether the detected changes in style are consistent with age-related changes or Alzheimer’s symptomatology. Some studies have shown that early manifestations of Alzheimer’s can be detected through changes in an individual’s speech and writing. These changes can include a decrease in vocabulary size, a reduction in grammatical complexity, and a decline in the coherence and clarity of the individual’s writing.
Dis-ability narratives in children’s and young adult’s narratives (Sidia Fiorato): the project aims at investigating the representation and conception of disability in literary and cultural texts, both from a physical/medical and psychilogical/social perspective, in connection with the articulation of identity of the protagonists and readers. The research will focus on the Victorian period, in relation with the codification of childhood as a distinct life phase and the development of child psychology and psychiatry, and the contemporary period, in particular through the re-reading of fairy tales as a metaphor for the articulation of ableness and dis-abled identities, through the analysis of the protaginists and the communication with young readers. The research will be based on a qualitative research design, specifically, comparative textual analysis, integrated with linguistic and stylometrics tools, cultural and medical theories.
Group leaders: Chiara Battisti and Sidia Fiorato
Internal members:
- Anja Meyer (assegnista Università di Verona)
Actions: WP 1.1
References:
Battisti C. (2018) “Am I Still Alice?”: The Quest for “a Sense of Self” and Alzheimer’s Disease in Still Alice by Lisa Genova” in Susan Onega and Jean-Michel Ganteau, The Wounded Hero in Contemporary Fiction. A Paradoxical Quest, Routledge.
Said, E. (2006) On Late Style, New York: Vintage Book.
Elizabeth A. Wheeler, “Disability”, in A Companion to Children’s Literature, ed. Karen Coats et al, New York: Blackwell, 2022
Donna Sayers Adomat, “Exploring Issues of Disability in Children’s Literature Discussions”, Disability Studies Quarterly 34.3 (2014)