Staring Back

Staring Back

The disability experience has, until very recently, been marginalized, stereotyped, and ignored in literature. Now, through the vehicles of nonfiction, poetry, fiction, and drama, Staring Back is the first anthology to open the landscape of the disabled experience for exploration and discussion.The presence of such well-known authors as Lucy Grealy, John Hockenberry, and Marilyn Hacker in this anthology gives immediate lie to the notion that disability is a limitation to insight and productivity. But just as importantly, Staring Back challenges us to look anew at the disabilities of FDR and Matisse; the lives of Helen Keller and Frida Kahlo; the work of Stephen Hawking. It urges us to redefine what is meant by ?cure,? to understand hidden disabilities, and even to find humor in ways that defy our expectations.If there is one theme that binds this diverse body of work, aside from its subject matter, it is the theme of human connection?a connection with the past, with each other, with our bodies, and with ourselves. As Kenny Fries writes in his introduction, ?Throughout history, those who live with disabilities have been silenced by those who did not want to hear what we have to say. We have also been silenced by our own fear...the fear that if we told our stories, people would say, ?See, it isn?t worth it. You would be better off dead.?? Staring Back emphatically demonstrates the power of these writers? stories to overcome that fear and to break that silence.

Junior Graphic

Staring

Drawing on examples from art, media, fashion, history and memoir, cultural critic Rosemarie Garland-Thomson tackles a basic human interaction which has remained curiously unexplored, the human stare. In the first book of its kind, Garland-Thomson defines staring, explores the factors that motivate it, and considers the targets and the effects of the stare. While borrowing from psychology and biology to help explain why the impulse to stare is so powerful, she also enlarges and complicates these formulations with examples from the realm of imaginative culture. Featuring over forty illustrations, Staring captures the stimulating combination of symbolic, material and emotional factors that make staring so irresistible while endeavoring to shift the usual response to staring, shame, into an engaged self-consideration. Elegant and provocative, this unique study advances new ways of thinking about visuality and the body that will appeal to readers who are interested in the overlap between the humanities and human behaviors.