A probing, witty, and deeply insightful history of blindness--in Western culture and literature, and in the author's own experience--that ranges from Homer to Milton to Braille to Stevie Wonder. M. Leona Godin begins her fascinating, wide-ranging study with an exploration of how the idea of sight is inextricably linked with knowledge and understanding; how "blindness" has, for millennia, been used as a metaphor for ignorance; and how, in metaphorical terms, blindness can also be made to suggest a door to artistic or spiritual transcendence. And she makes clear how all of this has obscured the…mehr
A probing, witty, and deeply insightful history of blindness--in Western culture and literature, and in the author's own experience--that ranges from Homer to Milton to Braille to Stevie Wonder. M. Leona Godin begins her fascinating, wide-ranging study with an exploration of how the idea of sight is inextricably linked with knowledge and understanding; how "blindness" has, for millennia, been used as a metaphor for ignorance; and how, in metaphorical terms, blindness can also be made to suggest a door to artistic or spiritual transcendence. And she makes clear how all of this has obscured the reality of blindness, as a consequence of which many blind people have to deal not just with their disability but also with expectations of "specialness." Godin illuminates the often surprising history of both the physiological condition and of the ideas that have attached to it. She incorporates analysis of blindness in art and literature (from King Lear to Star Wars) and in culture (assumptions of the blind as pure and magically wise) with the science of blindness and key developments in accessibility (the white cane, embossed printing, digital technology), and with her own experience of gradually losing sight over the course of three decades. Altogether, she gives us a revelation of the centrality of blindness and vision to humanity's understanding of itself and the world.
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Autorenporträt
M. LEONA GODIN is a writer, performer, and educator who is blind. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times; Playboy; O, The Oprah Magazine; and Catapult, where she writes the column "A Blind Writer's Notebook." She was a 2019 Logan Nonfiction Fellow and has written and produced two theatrical productions: The Star of Happiness, based on Helen Keller's time performing in vaudeville, and The Spectator and the Blind Man, about the invention of braille. She founded the online magazine Aromatica Poetica as a forum for exploring the arts and sciences of smell and taste, not specifically for, but welcoming to, blind readers and writers. She holds a PhD in English Literature from NYU and has lectured on art, accessibility, disability, and technology at NYU's Tandon School of Engineering, Rice University, and the American Printing House for the Blind, among other venues.
Inhaltsangabe
Introduction: Seeing and Not-Seeing ix 1. Homer's Blind Bard 3 2. The Tenacious Grip of the Blind Seer 17 3. I Once Was Blind, but Now I See 31 4. Out, Vile Jelly! 47 5. Telescopes, Microscopes, Spectacles, and Speculations 61 6. Darkness Visible 76 7. The Molyneux Man 95 8. Performing Enlightenment 114 9. Braille and His Invention 132 10. The Tap-Tapping of Blind Travelers 152 11. Helen Keller in Vaudeville and in Love 171 12. Sanctified by Affliction, or Not 190 13. Portrait of the (Working) Writer as Blind 206 14. The Secret Life of Art and Accessibility 223 15. The Scylla and Charybdis of Stigma and Superpowers 238 16. The Invisible Gorilla and Other Inattentions 256 17. Constructing Blind Pride out of Ancient and Evolutionary Blind Memes 271 Acknowledgments 289 Notes 293 Bibliography 309 Index 317
Introduction: Seeing and Not-Seeing ix 1. Homer's Blind Bard 3 2. The Tenacious Grip of the Blind Seer 17 3. I Once Was Blind, but Now I See 31 4. Out, Vile Jelly! 47 5. Telescopes, Microscopes, Spectacles, and Speculations 61 6. Darkness Visible 76 7. The Molyneux Man 95 8. Performing Enlightenment 114 9. Braille and His Invention 132 10. The Tap-Tapping of Blind Travelers 152 11. Helen Keller in Vaudeville and in Love 171 12. Sanctified by Affliction, or Not 190 13. Portrait of the (Working) Writer as Blind 206 14. The Secret Life of Art and Accessibility 223 15. The Scylla and Charybdis of Stigma and Superpowers 238 16. The Invisible Gorilla and Other Inattentions 256 17. Constructing Blind Pride out of Ancient and Evolutionary Blind Memes 271 Acknowledgments 289 Notes 293 Bibliography 309 Index 317
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