The Social Integration of Veterans with Military-Induced Hearing Loss Post-1918

退伍军人一直是历史和文学研究中越来越感兴趣的焦点，但到目前为止，研究主要集中在身体残疾和创伤后应激障碍上，而且主要集中在美国。1918年后，尽管英国军队中至少有2.4%的人在第一次世界大战期间听力损失到致残水平，但对英国退伍军人的听力损失经历的研究尚未进行。然而，由于英国医生普遍认为这些士兵是“装病者”（Conroy和Malik，2018），因此大多数病例没有报告，因此数字可能更高。这项研究将探讨医疗专业人员的当代态度;英国公众对听力损失退伍军人的反应;这些退伍军人在英国媒体中的代表性;以及政府对这些退伍军人的政策，询问这些因素如何导致第一次世界大战退伍军人的负面和艰苦的经历。更广泛地说，它将提高当代残疾退伍军人的理解和代表性，提供了一个新的见解战后残疾的想法，并作出重要贡献，退伍军人研究，战争和冲突，残疾，和医学humanities.This研究将解决以下问题：政府立法如何影响退伍军人听力损失不同的那些明显残疾？退伍军人因军事原因导致的听力损失与心理健康疾病之间是否存在联系？1918年之前对耳聋的误解是否影响了听力损失退伍军人的感知？媒体在形成英国公众对残疾退伍军人的看法方面发挥了什么作用？听力损失是战后残疾的一种独特和不寻常的经历吗？如果是，为什么？这项研究将考虑对耳聋的误解如何导致未诊断和漏报的军事诱发性听力损失病例，以及媒体如何将残疾人描绘为社会缺陷和不正常（巴恩斯，1992）加强了对听力损失等残疾的耻辱。聋人活动家提出了残疾社区的概念，认为是社会孤立了听力损失者，疏远了他们，并证实了他们的残疾身份（Foster，1989）。戴维斯（Davis，1995年）和拉德（Ladd，2003年）的研究为我的分析提供了信息，他们都对聋人文化的社会和医学话语提出了挑战，并推动了一场更大的残疾人权利运动。这与社会正义的概念有关，这是当前文献中越来越普遍的一个领域。Mladenov（2016）认为残疾视角在理解和促进社会正义方面的重要性。因此，本论文将讨论耳聋的医疗化及其对退伍军人重返社会的影响。

Veterans have been the focus of increasing interest in both history and literary studies, yet so far studies have predominantly focused on physical disabilities and PTSD and have largely concentrated on America. Research has yet to be conducted on the experiences of veterans with military-induced hearing loss in Britain post-1918, despite the fact that at least 2.4% of the British army sustained hearing loss during WWI to a disabling level. However, the majority of cases went unreported due to the widespread attitude of British doctors viewing these soldiers as 'malingerers' (Conroy and Malik, 2018), and therefore the number may well be higher. This research will explore contemporary attitudes of medical professionals; reactions of the British public towards veterans with hearing loss; the representations of those veterans in the British media; and government policy towards those veterans, asking how these factors contributed to the negative and arduous experiences of WWI veterans with military-induced hearing loss. More broadly, it will improve contemporary understandings and representations of disabled veterans, provide a new insight into post-war ideas about disability, and make important contributions to veteran studies, war and conflict, disability, and the medical humanities.This research will address the following questions: How did government legislation affect veterans with hearing loss differently to those with visible disabilities?Was there a link between veterans with military-induced hearing loss and mental health illnesses?Did misconceptions of deafness prior to 1918 affect the perception of veterans with hearing loss? What was the role of the media in forming the British public's perception of disabled veterans? Was hearing loss a unique and unusual experience of post war disability, and if so, why?The research will consider how misconceptions of deafness led to undiagnosed and underreported cases of military-induced hearing loss, and how the media's portrayal of disabled people as socially flawed and abnormal (Barnes, 1992) reinforced the stigma of disabilities like hearing loss. Deaf activists have promoted the idea of a disabling community, arguing that it is society which isolates those with hearing loss, alienating them, and substantiating their disabled identity (Foster, 1989). My analysis will be informed by the scholarship of Davis (1995) and Ladd (2003) both of whom challenged the social and medical discourse on Deaf culture and promoted a bigger movement for disabled rights. This links to concepts of social justice, an area that is increasingly prevalent in the current literature. Mladenov (2016) argues for the importance of the perspective of disability in understanding and promoting social justice. This thesis will therefore discuss the medicalisation of deafness and its impact on the veterans integrating back into society.