Disability, Self, and Society

Disability, Self, and Society speaks with authenticity about disability as a process of identity formation within a culture that has done a great deal to de-emphasize the complexity of disability experience. Unlike many who hold the conventional sociological view of disability as a ‘lack’ or stigmatized identity, Tanya Titchkosky approaches disability as an agentive (not passive) embodiment of liminality and as a demonstration of socially valuable in-between-ness. She argues that disability can and should be a ‘teacher’ to, and about, non-disabled or ‘temporarily abled’ society.

Titchkosky’s poignant reflections on disability rely on the thought of Hannah Arendt as well as her personal experience as an individual with dyslexia living with a blind partner; she uniquely draws on her own and others’ situations in order to demonstrate the sociopolitical character of disability. A thoughtful and cohesive integration of narrative and theory, Disability, Self, and Society presents a critical Canadian contribution to the growing subject of disability studies.