Representations of Disability in Cultural Spaces

The publication addresses the issue of the representation of people with disabilities from humanistic, historical, social, linguistic, literary, and didactic perspectives. The point of departure for the discussion is the conviction that disability cannot be understood solely as a medical category, but should be analyzed as a cultural, social, and axiological phenomenon that reveals the functioning of norms, otherness, exclusion, and subjectivity. The articles collected in the volume present diverse representations of disability in literary, cultural, media, and educational texts, pointing both to mechanisms of stereotyping and to attempts to overcome them. Particular attention is given to analyses concerning the possibilities of discussing disability in didactic practice, as well as to reflections on language as a tool for shaping the social perception of people with disabilities. The authors draw attention to the importance of terminology, lexical connotations, metaphors, and modes of evaluation, which may either reinforce social barriers or support inclusive attitudes. The publication, which is the outcome of the student and doctoral conference “The Image of People with Disabilities in Language, Literature, Culture, and Didactics,” constitutes an interdisciplinary attempt to broaden reflection on disability and to indicate new directions in research on its linguistic, literary, and cultural representation.