Postmodern Theory

What is postmodernism? Broadly defined, it is a departure from modernism. “Postmodernism, as this challenge has come to be known, is concerned with the culture of postmodernity. It refers to philosophical ideas, mainly derived from post-structuralist theory, and to cultural formations, especially associated with global popular culture.” (1)

• Disability is created when we talk about it. Disability is constructed by discursive practices (the processes by which cultural meanings are produced and understood — a historically and culturally specific set of rules for organizing and producing different forms of knowledge.) This adds a discursive theory of communication to the current materialistic focus on structure.
• Disabled identity isn’t a person’s only identity. Disability identity is fluid and its boundaries dependent on context and the dynamic interaction of other self-identities.
• Impairment and disability are equally important in analysis. Dialogic relation between impairment and disability, not an analytic privileging of one over the other.
• Disability and degree of disability are determined by context.

Normal Project Interviews

Mairian Scott Hill (Corker), Tom Shakespeare, Rosemary Garland Thomson, Ayesha Vernon, Tanya Titchkosky, and others

1. Corker, M. and Shakespeare, T. Mapping the Terrain. disability / postmodernity: Embodying Disability Theory. Editors Corker and Shakespeare.
2. Image Credit: Cover of How We Became Posthuman by N. Katharine Hayles.