Description
Book SynopsisBy triangulating the Greco-Roman world, classical reception, and disability studies, this book presents a range of approaches that reassess and reimagine traditional themes, from the narrative voice to sensory studies.
It argues that disability and disabled people are the forgotten other' of not just Classics, but also the Humanities more widely. Beyond the moral merits of rectifying this neglect, this book also provides a series of approaches and case studies that demonstrate the intellectual value of engaging with disability studies as classicists and exploring the classical legacy in the medical humanities. The book is presented in four parts: Communicating and controlling impairment, illness and pain'; Using, creating and showcasing disability supports and services'; Real bodies and retrieving senses: disability in the ritual record'; and Classical reception as the gateway between Classics and disability studies'. Chapters by scholars from different academic back
Trade Review
"With its exploratory approach and chapters addressing a wide range of different topics and methods, this collection represents an admirable contribution to a growing appreciation for a disability-informed approach to Humanities research generally... I am grateful to the volume’s editor and authors for a volume that has the potential to provoke readers into considering how disability can inform their own work and teaching."
- Bryn Mawr, Classical Review
"The book constitutes a rich and dense contribution to the field of ancient disability studies. Ellen Adams' effort to position herself at the crossroads of several historiographies also makes her an excellent starting point for readers who would discover the field."-Hélène Castelli, Anabases
Table of ContentsList of figures; List of tables; Contributors; Foreword by Lennard J. Davies; Acknowledgments; Chapter 1. ‘Disability studies and the classical body: the forgotten other. Introduction’, Ellen Adams; Part 1. Communicating and controlling impairment, illness and pain; Introduction, Ellen Adams; Chapter 2. Two troubles: the dramatic tragedy of Western medicine, Michael J. Flexer and Brian Hurwitz; Chapter 3. ‘There is a pain – so utter’: Narrating chronic pain and disability in antiquity and modernity, Georgia Petridou; Part 2. Using, creating and showcasing disability supports and services; Introduction, Ellen Adams; Chapter 4. Prostheses in classical antiquity: a taxonomy, Jane Draycott; Chapter 5. Displaying the forgotten other in museums: prostheses at the National Museums Scotland, Sophie Goggins; Chapter 6. New light on ‘the viewer’: sensing the Parthenon galleries in the British Museum, Ellen Adams; Part 3. Real bodies and retrieving senses: disability in the ritual record; Introduction, Ellen Adams; Chapter 7. Interactional sensibilities: bringing ancient disability studies to its archaeological senses, Emma-Jayne Graham; Chapter 8. Rational capacity and incomplete adults: the mentally impaired in classical antiquity, Patricia Baker and Sarah Francis; Part 4: Classical reception as the gateway between Classics and disability studies; Introduction, Ellen Adams; 9. The immortal forgotten other gang: dwarf Cedalion, lame Hephaestus, and blind Orion, Edith Hall; 10. A history of our own? Using Classics in disability histories, Helen King; Index
