Disability and Otherness in William Somerset Maugham’s Of Human Bondage (1915) and Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway (1925)
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Date
2019-06
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Université Mouloud Mammeri Tizi Ouzou
Abstract
The present dissertation is a comparative study of William Somerset Maugham’s Of Human
Bondage (1915) and Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway (1925). In fact, I have shed light on the
literary representation of disability in these two narratives by putting emphasis on affinities
and differences that exist between them in relation to the theme of disability. To cover this
study, I have principally relied on Davis Mitchell and Sharon Synder’s theory of Narrative
Prosthesis which I have reinforced with two relevant chapters from Disability Studies Reader
consisting of Tom Shakespeare’s “The Social Model of Disability,” and Lerita C. Brown’s
“Stigma: An Enigma Demystified.” In the light of these three selected works, I have tried to
reflect the authors’ claims about the “otherization” of the disabled and their misrepresentation
in literature. Indeed, in the first chapter, I borrowed the notion of “characterization” from
Narrative Prosthesis in order to demonstrate the employment of disability in narrative art as a
device of characterization which reflects the “otherness” of disabled characters. In addition, I
have made reference to Shakespeare’s “The Social Model of Disability” which treats the same
issue of “otherness” and the social marginalization of the disabled. In the second chapter, I
have put emphasis on the differences between the two texts relying on Mitchell and Synder’s
idea of “hierarchy,” that exists within disability and marks its varieties including mental and
physical impairments, and Brown’s notion of “cultural stigma” as an attribute of disability.
Finally, drawing on Mitchell and Synder’s notion of “cultural interrogation,” the third chapter
has put emphasis on the impact of cultural values on the class status and the position of
disabled people in society.
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30cm ; 69p.
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Littérature et Civilisation