Blindness; Seeing the Unseen. A Feminist Disability Study of The Other Senses and Vision

Abstract

This paper attempts to examine the nuances related to the experiences of disabled women. Studying cultural and literary texts under the rubric of Feminist Disability Studies would radically alter our perspective of how ableism and patriarchy intersect with the lives of disabled women. Feminist disability studies have provided new avenues for revisiting the representation and experience of disabled women in literature. As envisioned by Rosemarie Garland Thomas, taking recourse to disability studies and feminism can provide the most apt critique of myriad ways in which disabled women are marginalised. “Within feminist disability studies, exploring conceptual and lived connections between gender and disability helps to make visible the historical and ongoing interrelationship between all forms of oppression.” (Hall 4) This paper will study to illustrate how the onset of disability in the protagonists in The Other Senses (2012) by Preeti Monga and Vision (1916) by Rabindranath Tagore disintegrates/destabilises relationships within the family. It would also reveal the ableist bias and oppression in their lives. Both disabled women characters in their marital relationships come across the worst form of abuse. These texts accentuate different layers of normative ideologies that have bearing a on disabled women’s experiences. Both the writers have been selected from diverse backgrounds considering that India is composed of rich tapestry of cultures.