Abstract

Since the 1990s, memoirs of people with disabilities have been published with some regularity. Literary studies also intensively engages with these Life Narratives. Although the lived realities of women with disabilities are well-researched, they are still confronted in the course of their lives with more extensive disadvantages and forms of discrimination in comparison to men with disabilities and women without disabilities. However, a significant resilient and subversive potential can arise from their intersectional position. Building upon these considerations and the current state of research, my dissertation investigates how the memoirs of women who live with visual impairment or blindness narrate their disabilities in the contemporary North American context and how the concept of care manifests itself in various (textual) dimensions. I argue that within and even between the memoirs, spaces of democratic care emerge, in which care appears in various manifestations over the course of women’s lives. These care spaces are textually embedded in “female blindscapes” (a term I have coined). In the course of literary-critical observation of primary texts, special focus is laid on intersectionality (not only with regard to gender). Overall, the dissertation is situated at the convergence of disability studies, age studies and care studies.

Affiliation: Centre for Interdisciplinary Research on Ageing and Care (CIRAC)

Supervision: Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr.phil. Ulla Kriebernegg