Abstract

The aim of this dissertation is a cultural analysis based on research on societally (re)constructed and imagined representations of women with disabilities. Proceeding from the thesis that conceptions of disability are societal constructions and are accompanied by specific attributions, it undertakes, on the one hand, a cultural-analytical analysis of this socially developed understanding of women with disabilities and, on the other, calls this understanding into question using case studies. Women with disabilities contribute their perspectives through descriptive analytical methods and are delineated in their (in)visible everyday actions for disability rights that noiselessly but continuously help to shape representations of women with disabilities.

Through the demonstration of existing representations of women (with disabilities), experiences of violence, oppression and discrimination with which women with disabilities are confonted will be made visible and cultural, intersectional patterns will be made comprehensible as well. Structures of power(lessness), structural role ascriptions will be made culturally legible and critically scrutinized. This will not only render the daily life of women with disabilities visible in all its complexity but will also demonstrate the relevance of research in cultural studies shaped by socio-political action. Political dimensions of cultural action and cultural ascriptions are essential for this dissertation proposal. 

Supervisor: Univ.-Prof.i.R. Dr.phil. Rolshoven Johanna