Idea of Disability in the Eighteenth Century

Chris Mounsey is professor of English at the University of Winchester.

• CONTENTSAcknowledgments Introduction: Variability: Beyond Sameness and Difference Chris MounseyPart One – MethodologicalOne: “Perfect according to their Kind”: Deformity, Defect and Disease in the Natural Philosophy of Margaret Cavendish Holly Faith Nelson and Sharon AlkerTwo: What’s the Matter with Madness? John Locke, the Association of Ideas, and the Physiology of Thought Jess KeiserThree: Defections from Nature: Humanity and Deformity in Eighteenth-Century British Moral Philosophy Paul KelleherFour: Thomas Reid: Power as First Philosophy Emile BojesenPart Two - ConceptualFive: 'An HOBBY-HORSE Well Worth Giving a Description of: Disability, Trauma, and Language in Tristram ShandyAnna K. SagalSix: “One cannot be too secure:” Wrongful Confinement, or, the Pathologies of the Domestic Economy Dana Gliserman KopansPart Three - ExperientialSeven: ‘on that rock I lay’: Images of Disability Found in Religious VerseJamie KinsleyEight: Attractive Deformity: Enabling

Like most arenas of literary investigation, 18th-century studies has seen a proliferation of scholarship on disability in the last ten years--and one expects much more will follow. The present title joins three of the most notable book-length examinations: Patterns of Madness in the Eighteenth Century, ed. by Allan Ingram; Defects: Engendering the Modern Body, ed. by Helen Deutsch and Felicity Nussbaum; and David Turner's Disability in Eighteenth Century England. With respect to organization, Mounsey introduces a unique concept-to disability studies in general and certainly to 18th-century studies. The ten essays appear in three categories: 'Methodological,' essays examining how disability is understood and represented by significant thinkers (1663 and 1788); 'Conceptual,' essays looking at and problematizing representation of disability in literary works; and 'Experiential,' essays examining how disability is represented by those who experienced it and left written records of their suffering. A few essays feature canonical figures, but most introduce overlooked, unknown texts, a result of impressive archival research. In this respect and others, the collection bridges disability studies and cultural studies. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Graduate students and researchers/faculty.