Type
Text
Type
Thesis
Advisor
Walters, Tracey. | Dunn, Patrica A
Date
2014-12-01
Keywords
ADA, Disability, supercrip, YA Literature | Literature
Department
Department of English.
Language
en_US
Source
This work is sponsored by the Stony Brook University Graduate School in compliance with the requirements for completion of degree.
Identifier
http://hdl.handle.net/11401/77560
Publisher
The Graduate School, Stony Brook University: Stony Brook, NY.
Format
application/pdf
Abstract
Literature offers an opportunity to share in the lived experiences of others, experiences that as readers we may otherwise never personally encounter. Disability in our society is a reality, yet one that has not been fully embraced--not unlike issues with race, gender, age, or sexual orientation. Individuals begin to encounter many of these matters early in life, but as impressionable adolescents, a time when they begin to understand and navigate the world, often times they meet these experiences in books. Since books are an especially important part of how thoughts and attitudes are shaped, this paper seeks to analyze a selection of texts geared towards young readers to understand whether the view of disability has remained static since the 1950s and to understand how disability is being used in more current texts for young adult readers. Stoner & Spaz by Ron Koertge, Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick and Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes will be the representative artifacts for this analysis. How these texts respond to important questions about language, representations of disability, the lived experiences of people with disabilities, and the power differentials which exist will be examined. | 45 pages
Recommended Citation
Hinkson, Sharon Munroe, "Disability and the Young Adult Reader: How Has the Portrayal of Disability Changed in the Last Fifty Years?" (2014). Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions). 3360.
https://commons.library.stonybrook.edu/stony-brook-theses-and-dissertations-collection/3360