Physical Disability in British Romantic Literature Cambridge Studies in Romanticism Series

The modern concept of disability did not exist in the Romantic period. This study addresses the anachronistic use of 'disability' in scholarship of the Romantic era, providing a disability studies theorized account that explores the relationship between ideas of function and aesthetics. Unpacking the politics of ability, the book reveals the centrality of capacity and weakness concepts to the egalitarian politics of the 1790s, and the importance of desert theory to debates about sentiment and the charitable relief of impaired soldiers. Clarifying the aesthetics of deformity as distinct from discussions of ability, Joshua uncovers a controversy over the use of deformity in picturesque aesthetics, offers accounts of deformity that anticipate recent disability studies theory, and discusses deformity and monstrosity as a blended category in Frankenstein. Setting aside the modern concept of disability, Joshua cogently argues for the historical and critical value of period-specific terms.

Part I. Politics of Ability: 1. William Godwin and capacity; 2. Invigorating women: female weakness in the work of Mary Wollstonecraft; 3. Wordsworth's 'The Discharged Soldier' and the question of desert; Part II. Aesthetics of Deformity: 4. Picturesque aesthetics: theorizing deformity in the Romantic era; 5. Relational deformity in Frances Burney's Camilla; 6. Monstrous sights: Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

Essaka Joshua is Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies in the College of Arts and Letters at the University of Notre Dame. She is the author of Pygmalion and Galatea (2001) and The Romantics and the May Day Tradition (2007). She won the Tyler Rigg Award for Disability Studies Scholarship in Literature and Literary Analysis in 2012.