Whether consciously or unconsciously, attitudes toward visual impairment are likely to be influenced by its representation in fictional literature. Critical of a supposed link between visual impairment and castration, this article examines a sample of literary works that are found to unify with eugenics—not only in geographic and historical circulation, but in ideological content.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AllportG. W. (1954). The nature of prejudice.London: Addison-Wesley.
2.
AtwoodM. (2000). The blind assassin.London: Bloomsbury.
3.
BlankH. R. (1957). Psychoanalysis and blindness. Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 26, 1–24.
4.
CarverR. (1993). Cathedral. Where I'm calling from: The selected stories (pp. 292–307). London: Harvill. [Original work published 1983]
5.
DawkinsR. (1986). The blind watchmaker.Essex, England: Longman.
6.
DerridaJ. (1993). Memoirs of the blind: The self-portrait and other ruins.Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
7.
DoddsA. (1993). Rehabilitating blind and visually impaired people: A psychological approach.London: Chapman & Hall.
8.
EtcoffN. (1999). Survival of the prettiest: The science of beauty.London: Little, Brown.
9.
FreudS. (1990). Art and literature.London: Penguin. [Original work published 1910]
10.
GaltonF. (1883). Inquiries into human faculty.London: Macmillan.
11.
GideA. (1963). La symphonie pastorale.London: Penguin. [Original work published 1919]
12.
GilmanS. L. (1985). Difference and pathology: Stereotypes of sexuality, race, and madness.Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
13.
GrahamW. (1997). Night without stars.London: Pan. [Original work published 1950]
14.
HubbardR. (1997). Abortion and disability: Who should and who should not inhabit the world? In DavisL. J. (Ed.), The disability studies reader (pp. 187–200). New York: Routledge.
15.
HumphriesS., & GordonP. (1992). Out of sight: The experience of disability 1900–1950.Plymouth, England: Northcote House.
16.
KelmanJ. (1995). How late it was, how late.Leicester, England: Minerva.
17.
KiplingR. (1988). The light that failed.London: Penguin. [Original work published 1891]
18.
KirtleyD. D. (1975). Blindness in the arts. The psychology of blindness (pp. 49–92). Chicago: Nelson-Hall.
19.
KlappO. E. (1962). Heroes, villains and fools.Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
20.
KleegeG. (1999). In Oedipus’ shadow. Sight unseen (pp. 67–92). New Haven: Yale University Press.
21.
KühlS. (1994). The Nazi connection: Eugenics, American racism, and German National Socialism.New York: Oxford University Press.
22.
LawrenceD. H. (1955). The blind man. The complete short stories of D. H. Lawrence (Vol. 2, pp. 347–365). London: William Heinemann. [Original work published 1920]
23.
LehmannR. (1981). Invitation to the waltz.London: Virago. [Original work published 1932]
24.
LowenfeldB. (1981). The blind adolescent in a seeing world. Berthold Lowenfeld on blindness and blind people: Selected papers by Berthold Lowenfeld (pp. 102–111). New York: American Foundation for the Blind. [Original work published 1959]
25.
MaeterlinckM. (1997). The blind. In SlaterM. (Ed.), Three pre-surrealist plays (pp. 2–48). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. [Original work published 1891]
26.
MonbeckM. E. (1973). Attitudes toward blindness and blind people in the past. The meaning of blindness: Attitudes toward blindness and blind people (pp. 22–65). Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
27.
NormanH. (2000). Blind fear.London: Piatkus.
28.
NortonM. (1998). The girl in the corner. The bread and butter stories (pp. 1–15). London: Virago.
29.
O'FarrellM. A. (1999). Blindness and domestic terror in Wait until dark.Western Humanities Review, 53, 218–22.
30.
RycroftC. (1972). A critical dictionary of psychoanalysis.Middlesex, England: Penguin.
