Disability Studies Meets Microhistory

This volume explores the life of Bjargey Bb Kristjnsdttir (19271999), an Icelandic woman with intellectual disabilities, through analysis of her autobiography and personal archive on the basis of the research disciplines of critical disability studies and microhistory. Bb, who grew up in northern Iceland on a small farm called Berlin, fell ill when she was in her first year and was afterwards labeled feeble-minded by her family and the local community. When Bb died, she had finished a 145,000-word autobiography which she had written alone and kept secret from her family and neighbors, very few of whom even knew that she could read and write. This book aims to consider Bbs life through her autobiography and other historical sources she created, to identify how various historical, social, and cultural factors interacted and influenced her circumstances. It explores Bbs agency, and how she managed to play her cards within the narrow scope given to her by society. What makes Bbs history extraordinary is precisely the direct connection to her world through her counter-archive. This book provides students and scholars of the humanities and the social sciences with a new way of critical thinking about both disciplines.