Structural boundaries that effect the representation of gender and disability in works of fiction from the United States and United Kingdom

Abstract

Discussions of intellectual disability are found in medical journals, published biographies, and disability research. However, outside the realm of medicine or personal reminiscence intellectual disability struggles for spaces of social, historical, cultural and imaginative representation. This article addresses these struggles for space and specifically focuses on the imagined space of narrative fiction. Being imagined spaces they should easily be able to accommodate people with disability, and yet, very few characters with intellectual disability are represented or more importantly have agency in narrative fiction. Drawing on work from feminist geographies and literary geographies this article addresses the limiting narrative structures that have been used against fictional characters who have a disability and ways authors may move beyond these limitations. Reconciling feminist geographies and literary geographies allows new critical spatial knowledge around disability to emerge. It is not enough to write characters with disabilities into narrative fiction if the structures surrounding them remain limiting and prejudiced. This article discusses the three main limiting structures in narrative fiction: character representation, narrative voice and genre. Looking at narrative fiction through feminist and literary geographies reveals how these limiting structures function as power hierarchies, and importantly, shows how these imposed structures can be subverted and changed.

Keywords:

• Disability
• gender
• imagination
• narrative
• spaces
• structures

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lesley Hawkes

Lesley Hawkes is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Communication at Queensland University of Technology. Her research areas are space, transport, and environment and literature. Lesley is a senior fellow in the Higher Education Academy.

Sarah Kanake

Sarah Kanake is a Lecturer in the Faculty of Arts, Business and Law at the University of Sunshine Coast. She has a PhD in creative writing and her research focuses on disability and fiction. Sarah is also a published author and has been short-listed for the Australian Vogel Literary prize.