Disablism and Dwarfism in Medievalist Fantasy

中世纪幻想中的残疾和侏儒症

• 批准号: 2570550
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Birmingham
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2570550
• 关键词: Disablism; Dwarfism; Medievalist; Fantasy

My project analyses depictions of dwarfs across landmark fantasy texts, arguing that they impact significantly on the lives of people with dwarfism. The reuse of stereotypical dwarf characters is detrimental to the well-being of many impaired people; framing dwarfs as infantile, violent, and sexually aggressive encourages non-disabled audiences to dehumanise people with restricted growth for their own amusement. Beginning with medieval source texts and moving to twenty-first century authors via a discussion of Tolkien's prodigious influence, I will use close language analysis to identify the social impacts of the messages fantasy authors disseminate to the wider public about restricted growth. I argue that many fantasy texts subconsciously promote ableist attitudes but will also highlight instances where authors have subverted these expectations to spread understanding of the experiences of impaired people.I will principally study Tolkien's Lord of the Rings (1954-1955)) and Pratchett's Discworld (1983-2015) alongside a range of other texts by authors such as William Morris, C. S. Lewis and Alan Garner to situate them fully within the genre. These seminal fantasy texts serve as useful indicators of the attitudes towards impairment in the genre. To determine if they challenge or encourage ableist stereotypes, I will ask: what implications are raised by the racialised classification of dwarfs as biological and/or cultural others; what does the spiritual and moral codification of height suggest about social attitudes towards impairment; and what messages do the depictions of dwarfs' sex and sexuality send about impairment?

我的项目分析了具有里程碑意义的奇幻文本中对侏儒的描述，认为它们对侏儒症患者的生活产生了重大影响。重复使用刻板的侏儒角色不利于许多残疾人的福祉；将侏儒描述为幼稚、暴力和性侵犯，会鼓励非残疾观众为了自己的娱乐而对生长受限的人进行非人性对待。从中世纪的源文本开始，通过讨论托尔金的巨大影响转向二十一世纪的作家，我将使用密切的语言分析来确定幻想作者向更广泛的公众传播的有关限制增长的信息的社会影响。我认为，许多奇幻文本潜意识地宣扬体能主义态度，但也会强调作者颠覆这些期望以传播对残疾人经历的理解的实例。我将主要研究托尔金的《指环王》（1954-1955）和普拉切特的《碟形世界》（1983-2015）以及威廉·莫里斯、C.S.刘易斯和艾伦等作者的一系列其他文本。 加纳将它们完全置于该流派中。这些开创性的奇幻文本可以作为有用的指标，表明人们对这一类型的缺陷的态度。为了确定他们是否挑战或鼓励体能歧视的刻板印象，我会问：将矮人种族化分类为生物和/或文化他人会产生什么影响？身高的精神和道德规范表明社会对缺陷的态度是什么？对侏儒性别和性取向的描述传达了哪些有关缺陷的信息？