Different Bodies

This collection of 19 new essays by 21 authors from the United States, the UK, Canada, Australia and India focuses on contemporary film and television (1989 to the present) from those countries as well as from China, Korea, Thailand and France. The essays are divided into two parts. The first includes critical readings of narrative film and television. The second includes contributions on documentaries, biopics and autobiographically-informed films. The book as a whole is designed to be accessible to readers new to disability studies while also contributing significantly to the field. An introduction gives background on disability studies and appendices provide a filmography and a list of suggested reading.

Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.

Marja Evelyn Mogk is an associate professor and chair of the Department of English at California Lutheran University where she teaches courses in film and drama.

Edited by Marja Evelyn Mogk

Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 284
Bibliographic Info: 3 photos, filmography, appendices, index
Copyright Date: 2013
pISBN: 978-0-7864-6535-4
eISBN: 978-1-4766-0621-7
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments  ix
Introduction: An Invitation to Disability  1

Part I: Disability on the Screen
Deaf Sexy: Genre and Disability in Read My Lips (Timothy E. Wilson)  17
Punk Will Tear Us Apart: Performance, Liminality and Filmic Depictions of Disabled Punk Musicians (David Church)  28
Acquired Community: Leigh Bowery and Hail the New Puritan’s Mise-en-Scène of AIDS (Heather Warren-Crow)  39
Razzle-Dazzle Heartbreak: Disability Promotion and Glorious Abjection in Guy Maddin’s The Saddest Music in the World (Nicole Markotic)  55
Seeing the Apricot: A Disability Perspective on Alzheimer’s in Lee Chang-dong’s Poetry (Sally Chivers)  65
Breaking the Silence? Deafness, Education and Identity in Two Post-Cultural Revolution Chinese Films (Sarah Dauncey)  75
Modernity’s Rescue Mission: Postcolonial Transactions of Disability and Sexuality (Eunjung Kim and Michelle Jarman)  89
Chocolate’s Ass-Kicking Autistic Savant: Disability, Globalization and the Action Cinema (Russell Meeuf)  101
Physical Disability and Indian Cinema (Joyojeet Pal)  109
Extra-Textual Reveals: Disability, (Sort of) Queer Sexuality and a Military Coup in Battlestar Galactica (Alyson Patsavas)  131
Healer? Assassin? Ben Hawkins, “Cure,” “Disability” and Missions in HBO’s Carnivàle (Johnson Cheu)  145
“Are they laughing at us or with us?” Disability in Fox’s Animated Series Family Guy (Simon McKeown and Paul A. Darke)  155
Choreographing Disability: Stigma, Handicapability and Dancing with the Stars (Heath A. Diehl)  165

Part II: Disability in Production and Reception
Don’t Film Us, We’ll Film You: Agency and Self-Representation in the Joined for Life Television Documentaries (Ellen Samuels)  175
The Making of 18q-: Parental Advocacy, Disability and the Ethics of Documentary Filmmaking (Veronica Wain)  191
Overcoming the Need to “Overcome”: Challenging Disability Narratives in The Miracle (Terri Thrower)  205
Born on the Fourth of July: Production and Assessment of a Turbulent Text (Martin F. Norden)  219
Deafness as Peripeteia: “Beethoven” and Immortal Beloved (Dawne C. McCance)  231
“This isn’t something I can fake”: The Discourse of Disability Surrounding Glee! (Katie Ellis)  244

Appendices
I: Filmography  255
II: Selected Readings in Disability Studies  259
About the Contributors  263
Index  267

• “The range of topics is impressive and intriguing…highly recommended”—Choice