Imagining Disability in the Long Eighteenth Century: Representations of Impairment in England c.1660-c.1830

想象漫长的 18 世纪的残疾：1660 年至 1830 年英国损伤的表现

• 批准号: AH/H039244/1
• 负责人: David Turner
• 金额: $ 8.25万
• 依托单位: Swansea University
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Fellowship
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2010 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FH039244%2F1
• 关键词: Imagining; Disability; Long; Eighteenth; Century

'Imagining Disability in the Long Eighteenth Century' examines the ways in which physical impairment was defined, understood and discussed in England between 1660 and 1830. Disability history has developed over the past decade to show that meanings of impairment are not biologically determined but subject to change over time. Yet much of this research is focused on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and traces the historical roots of the barriers faced by disabled people in the present to citizenship. Research on disability before 1800 tends to focus on its more 'freakish' aspects, such as broadside accounts of 'monstrous births', rather than its more common manifestations. Furthermore, existing histories of disability are generally founded on institutional and top-down histories of what was done to disabled people; little is known about the experience of disability in history. Despite the view that the period from the late seventeenth to the early nineteenth centuries witnessed significant changes both in the treatment of disabled people and in social perceptions of disability, the era has not yet received detailed historical attention. 'Imagining Disability' seeks to make good this neglect, analysing cultural representations of disability and the testimonies of disabled people themselves to explore the meanings of impairment in this period. The principal output of the project will be a monograph that provides the first book-length study of physical impairment in this period. Cultural meanings of disability will be explored via a diverse range of sources, from sermons and medical texts to jokes, newspapers and prints. The book also examines how disabled men and women drew on these representations in making sense of their own experiences via analyses of elite memoirs and letters and a variety of narratives produced by the disabled poor found in pauper letters, petitions and criminal court records. It challenges dominant historical assumptions about the period as one which witnessed a transformation of perceptions of disability from one based on a 'religious' model to one based on medical understanding, by showing overlap between different modes of conceptualising impairment. It also challenges the accepted picture of the eighteenth century as a time insensitive and ill-adapted to bodily disability, contributing to wider discussions about Enlightenment society.The research is of contemporary as well as historical importance. It makes an important contribution to the broader project of restoring disabled people to history, acting as a form of empowerment to a group that traditionally has been marginalised. Key debates about disability in the eighteenth century recur in the modern era. The public perception and treatment of disabled war veterans is a current issue in Britain as part of the wider debate about the continued viability of military intervention in Afghanistan. At the same time, concerns about 'fraudulent' claimants to disability benefits (which echo eighteenth-century diatribes against 'sham cripples' begging on the streets) have resurfaced in the British media in the context of controversy about eligibility to state welfare provision. This research has potential to make an impact on policy debates about eligibility for support by examining the historical problems of defining genuine and fake claimants to relief. It draws on historical evidence to urge policy makers not to pander to media prejudices in their perception of what is 'disabling' and in judging the legitimacy of claimants. An article aimed at communicating 'lessons from history' to policy makers will demonstrate the relevance of the research in this respect. The resulting publications will appeal to scholars of disability history, eighteenth-century social and cultural history and anyone interested in human diversity.

《想象十八世纪的残疾》考察了1660年至1830年间英国对身体残疾的定义、理解和讨论的方式。残疾历史在过去十年中的发展表明，损害的含义不是生物学上确定的，而是随着时间的推移而变化的。然而，这项研究的大部分集中在十九世纪和二十世纪，并追溯了目前残疾人面临的公民身份障碍的历史根源。关于1800年前残疾的研究往往集中在它更“怪异”的方面，比如对“怪胎出生”的猛烈描述，而不是它更常见的表现。此外，现有的残疾历史通常建立在对残疾人所做的制度性和自上而下的历史的基础上；历史上对残疾的经历知之甚少。尽管有观点认为，从十七世纪末到十九世纪初，残疾人的待遇和社会对残疾的看法都发生了重大变化，但这一时代尚未受到详细的历史关注。《想象残疾》试图弥补这种忽视，分析残疾的文化表征和残疾人本身的证词，以探索这一时期残疾的意义。该项目的主要成果将是一本专著，提供这一时期第一本书长的身体损伤研究。残疾的文化含义将通过不同的来源进行探索，从布道和医学文本到笑话、报纸和印刷品。这本书还通过对精英回忆录和信件的分析，以及在贫民信件、请愿书和刑事法庭记录中发现的残疾穷人产生的各种叙述，考察了残疾男子和妇女如何利用这些陈述来理解他们自己的经历。它挑战了占主导地位的历史假设，即通过展示不同概念化损害模式之间的重叠，见证了对残疾的看法从基于宗教模型到基于医学理解的转变。它也挑战了18世纪的公认图景，认为18世纪是一个对身体残疾缺乏敏感和不适应的时代，有助于更广泛地讨论启蒙社会。这项研究具有当代和历史意义。它为更广泛的项目--让残疾人回归历史--做出了重要贡献，为传统上被边缘化的群体提供了一种赋权形式。18世纪关于残疾的关键辩论在现代重演。在英国，公众对残疾退伍军人的看法和待遇是一个当前的问题，这是关于军事干预阿富汗的持续可行性的更广泛辩论的一部分。与此同时，在有关是否有资格获得国家福利的争议背景下，英国媒体重新出现了对领取残疾救济金(这与18世纪抨击街头乞讨假残疾人的言论相呼应)的担忧。这项研究可能会对有关获得援助资格的政策辩论产生影响，因为它审查了界定救济真假申索人的历史问题。它利用历史证据敦促政策制定者不要迎合媒体的偏见，不要在他们对什么是“残疾”的看法上，以及在判断索赔人的合法性时。一篇旨在向政策制定者传达“历史教训”的文章将展示这项研究在这方面的相关性。由此产生的出版物将吸引残疾历史、18世纪社会和文化史的学者以及任何对人类多样性感兴趣的人。

项目成果

Technologies of the Body: Polite Consumption and the Correction of Deformity in Eighteenth-Century E ngland

身体技术：十八世纪英国的礼貌消费与畸形矫正

• DOI: 10.1111/1468-229x.12087
• 发表时间: 2014
• 期刊: History
• 影响因子: 0.5
• 作者: Turner D

Disability in Eighteenth-Century England: Imagining Physical Impairment

十八世纪英国的残疾：想象身体损伤

• 发表时间: 2012
• 作者: Turner David M.