Graduation Term
3-12-2021
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Department of English
Committee Chair
Karen Coats
Abstract
Disabled individuals are the largest minority group in the United States and Disability scholarship is intricately connected to lived experiences and advocacy, but it too often remains overlooked even in conversations that intend to bring to light historically underrepresented groups. This dissertation provides an analysis of a broad range of children’s literature and its role in constructing literal and ideological images of disability. It offers a critical analysis of visuality in the following children’s texts: Wonder by R.J. Palacio, El Deafo by Cece Bell, Miss Little’s Gift by Douglas Wood, Thank You, Mr Falker by Patricia Polacco, A Boy and a Jaguar by Alan Rabinowitz, Kids Like Us by Hilary Reyl, and Accidents of Nature by Harriet McBryde Johnson. These selected texts illuminate how the abled gaze is created, reinforced, or challenged through visual representations. This multidisciplinary approach draws from visual rhetoric and children’s literature to reveal the affordances and limitations of different types of visual media, including picturebooks, graphic novels, middle grade and young adult novels, and films.
Recommended Citation
Lancrenon, Agathe, "The Politics of Di/visibility: Narrative Positioning and Disability Representation in Children’s Literature" (2021). Theses and Dissertations. 1448.
https://ir.library.illinoisstate.edu/etd/1448
DOI
https://doi.org/10.30707/ETD2021.20211012065804061323.999977
Page Count
182