This dissertation arises from an interdisciplinary attention to the categories
of embodiment, otherness, and the "abnormal." In deconstructing a "normal"
versus "abnormal" binary, I focus specifically on establishing intersections
between disabled and/or queer bodies, those commonly categorized as monstrous.
By way of feminist science studies and cultural studies theoretical frameworks, I
postulate that the connections between disabled and/or queer bodies can be read
through the practices of biological, cultural, and queer reproduction(s). Chapter One is concerned with examining how disabled and/or queer
physical reproduction highlights and troubles a heteronormative and able-bodied
normative time line. I consider Michael Berube's memoir Life As We Know It and
Barbara Kingsolver's novel The Poisonwood Bible in order to hypothesize a
notion I term "queer-progress," a time line that works in opposition to a linear
progressive movement of bodies in time. In Chapter Two, I investigate the process of cultural and social reproduction. What kinds of attitudes, beliefs, and storylines are perpetually
recreated and reproduced around disabled and/or queer bodies? How is the
disabled and/or queer body positioned against a "normal" body? I study Alice
Munro's short story "Child's Play" and Lois Lowry's young adult novel The
Giver with the aim to expose how socio-cultural reproductive policing
technologies seek to maintain able-bodied and heteronormative privilege by way
of the normalization and reproduction of negative affect towards monstrous
bodies. Chapter Three analyzes texts that envision queer reproductive stories, both
biological and cultural, for disabled and/or queer subjects. I examine the question
of what happens when disabled and/or queer bodies bear reproductive fruit, both
physically and in the form of cultural change. I explore Larissa Lai's novel Salt
Fish Girl and Allyson Mitchell's art installation Ladies Sasquatch and posit that
these texts offer alternative manifestations of reproduction, community, and
kinship formations. This project places different dialogues in conversation with one another feminist thought about reproduction, disability and reproduction, queerness and
reproduction, disability and queerness and how the "normal" body is created and
maintained. In sum, I build on existing work in feminism, disability studies and
queer theory to develop the notion of "reproduction" in an interdisciplinary
fashion. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:mcmaster.ca/oai:macsphere.mcmaster.ca:11375/21151 |
| Date | 04 1900 |
| Creators | Narduzzi, Dilia |
| Contributors | O'Brien, Susie, English and Cultural Studies |
| Source Sets | McMaster University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
Page generated in 0.005 seconds