Life narratives are very powerful tools for representing individuals and communities alike. The question of how marginalized people are represented in life narratives is especially important. This is because, as argued by Couser in the chapter “Rhetoric and Self-Representation in Disability Memoir”, in his novel Signifying Bodies, autobiographies from marginalized groups have the power to remove the social, economic and political domination in their lives.
In Couser’s chapter, he focuses on rhetoric – the way the narrator tells their story, and how the rhetoric of “triumph, horror, spiritual compensation, and nostalgia” (33), except rhetoric of emancipation continues the stereotypical views and magnifies the discrimination of marginalized people. In this blog entry, I shall explore the rhetoric of emancipation in the life narrative texts, “How I fail at being disabled” by Susan Robinson, and Jessica Stewart’s self-portrait on depression and examine their effect on the representation of disabled people.
In Robinson’s Ted Talk she elaborates on five tips for what she labels as failing at being disabled:
- “Know your superpowers”,
- “Being skilled at getting it wrong”,
- “Know that everyone is disabled in some way”,
- “Point out the disability in everyone”,
- “Pursue audacious goals” (Robinson).
In the elaboration of those tips, Robinson employs satire, such as when she describes that her superpowers are “ricocheting off glass walls” and “letting friends walk with kale in their mouth”. The imagery of Robinson bouncing off glass walls, and having her friends talk to strangers with vegetable in their mouth is hilarious. More importantly, they highlight physical obstacles for Robinson and societal obligations she can’t meet. However, as Robinson makes light of the social expectations that causes stigma, she emphasises that what marginalizes disabled people is not the actual physical difficulties that disabled people have. This emphasis is what Couser describes as the rhetoric of emancipation. Robison’s narrative shows that the problem is the physical and social expectations that society has created or failed to remove. Hence, contributing to the positive representation of disabled people as dignified and changing the dialogue of them being nothing but vulnerable individuals.
Like Robinson’s talk, Jessica’s Stewart’s self-portraits don’t try to fix disability but instead displays it as something that can be ‘accommodated’ by removing social and cultural obstacles. Stewart’s series called “Melancholy – a girl called depression” portrays the genuine and intense “emotion felt by suffers of depression”. Through depicting the real emotions suffers experience as self-portraits, Stewart aims to break the societal perception of depression as “sad, dramatic” or “crazy”. In addition, Stewart aims to disrupt “unrealistic” cultural expectations “imposed by media”, which she believes “fuels depression”. (Shovova and Tribe)
The significance of Stewart’s series in transferring the perception of those with depression is evident in a personal example. When I showed the series to a friend, she realised that she never felt the way the author depicted depression when she used the term. This led to a moment of realisation that “depression” is a very serious term and a huge struggle for those who have it. The series also led to her deciding to stop using the word and take people very seriously when they say they are depressed.
In conclusion, “How I fail at being disabled” by Susan Robinson, and Jessica Stewart’s self-portrait on depression are life narratives with the rhetoric of emancipation. They don’t try to ‘fix’ disability but display it as something that can be ‘accommodated’ by removing physical, social and cultural obstacles. This in turn positively represents disabled people as more than their disabilities.
Work Cited
Couser, G. T. Signifying Bodies: Disability in Contemporary Life Writing. University of Michigan Press, 2009.
Knighton, Ryan. Cockeyed: a Memoir. PublicAffairs, 2006.
Robinson, Susan. “How I Fail at Being Disabled.” TED: Ideas Worth Spreading, www.ted.com/talks/susan_robinson_how_i_fail_at_being_disabled?utm_campaign=tedspread-a&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare.
Shovova, and Yugen Tribe. “Interview: Photographer Explores Own Depression with Surreal Self-Portraits.” My Modern Met, 21 May 2018, mymodernmet.com/janelia-mould-conceptual-photography-depression/.