Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

This article reviews the ways blind characters have been depicted by writers from Sophocles (c 429 BC) to James Dickey (AD 1987). Blindness as usually tragic metaphor predominates in literature through the ages, except for certain popular romances and novels by blind writers. Well-known blind characters throughout the literature and fictional creations of writers of the past two decades are discussed in detail, and discussed in relation to stereotypes of blind people.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Adelman

(1970). Honey out of stone. Garden City, NY: Doubleday.

Bristow

R.O.

(1974). Laughter in darkness. New York: Crown.

Bulwer-Lytton

Lord G.

(published 1834). The last days of Pompeii. Reissued 1946. New York: Dodd Mead.

Cauvin

(1975). Blind love. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Dickey

(1987). Alnilam. Garden City, NY: Doubleday.

Ellin

(1985). Very old money. New York: Arbor House.

Gershe

(1969). Butterflies are free. New York: Samuel French.

Kirtley

(1975). The psychology of blindness. Chicago: Nelson Hall.

Kriegel

(1987). The cripple in literature. In Gartner

, & Joe

(Eds.), Images of the disabled, disabling images. Westport, CT: Praeger.

10.

Monbeck

(1973). The meaning of blindness: Attitudes toward blindness and blind people. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.

11.

Ogburn

(1973). Winespring Mountain. New York: Morrow.

12.

Penner

(1977). Going blind. New York: Simon & Schuster.

13.

Sontag

(1967). Death kit. New York: New American Library.

14.

Stewart

F.M.

(1983). Ellis Island. New York: Morrow.

15.

Twersky

(1955). Blindness in literature: Examples of depictions and attitudes. New York: American Foundation for the Blind.

16.

Twersky

(1953). The face of the deep. New York: World.

17.

Tyler

(1976). Searching for Caleb. New York: Knopf.

18.

Wallace

(1984). The miracle. New York: Dutton.

19.

Wolfe

(1940). You can't go home again. New York: New American Library.

Shackled Imagination: Literary Illusions about Blindness

Abstract

Get full access to this article

References