English 248 - LITERATURE OF BLINDNESS

The English language is dominated by visual metaphor: students, for example, must bring insight to their readings, inspecting these texts to look for—and illuminate—any blind spots. This course will examine Western culture’s privileging of vision that culture’s attitudes toward blindness, as well as the ways in which disability shapes and defines the way we read. Texts include works by blind authors (Helen Keller, JL Borges); sighted authors (from Sophocles to Saramago); literature made specifically for the blind (such as the first full-length “audiobooks,” recorded for blinded WWI veterans); and readings in philosophy, history, and disability studies.