Introduction: Literary Disability Studies in the UK

Abstract

It has been less than two years since the Journal of Literary Disability (JLD) was launched but much has happened in the emerging field during that short time. Consequently, by way of an introduction to this, the first issue under the new title Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies (JLCDS), Iwould like to reflect on some of the recent interdisciplinary progress. Iam compelled to focus on the example with which Iam most familiar-namely, the British academy-but have been assured by the rest of the board that comparable progress has been made internationally. Indeed, any of my colleagues could have provided acomparably optimistic introduction and those in the US, for example, could have provided something far more extensive. That said, we, the journal's readers, writers, reviewers, and editors, are by no means complacent. We are well aware that even in the US disability studies is still too frequently, if not generally, ignored in departments of literary and cultural studies. But with the support of Liverpool University Press (LUP), Project MUSE, and the Centre for Disability Research at Lancaster University, we will endeavour to ensure that the field of literary and cultural disability studies continues to expand across the academy. When writing the introduction for the inaugural issue of the journal Imade reference to the progress of literary disability studies in the UK. Iwas, therefore, bound to mention the University of Leeds, given the work of professors such as Colin Barnes and Mark Priestley, the development of the Disability Studies Archive UK and the Centre of Disability Studies, as well as the literary scholarship of Edward Larrissy and, amember of the journal's editorial board, Stuart Murray. Indeed, the latter of these literary scholars was contributing to the field in various ways-supervising the now-completed literary disability research projects of Clare Barker and Suzanne Ibbotson; teaching aliterary and cultural disability studies module;1 and working on Representing Autism: Culture, Narrative, Fascination, which was published last summer. While Iwould have argued, predictably perhaps, for still further endorsements of the interdisciplinarity of literary disability studies in the Department of English, my real concern was that the University of Leeds represented an exception to aperplexing rule of exclusion elsewhere in the British academy. Since writing that introduction Iam glad to say Ihave been made aware of other institutions in the British academy that are contributing to the progress of literary and cultural disability studies. Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU), for example, agreed to host the launch of the journal at Emerging Fields: Developing aCultural Disability Studies, the inaugural Conference of the Cultural Disability Studies Research Network, formed by Irene Rose, Rebecca Mallett, and Claire Molloy in 2007. The journal was represented at the event by Lucy Burke, Jane Goetzee, and Irene Rose. George McKay was the most prominent speaker and Iwas honoured to give the opening plenary presentation on the importance of literary disability studies as aresponse to literary representations of impairment and disability. Lucy Burke gave another plenary presentation about her work on the representation of Alzheimer's disease, samples of which can now be found in both the inaugural issue of the journal and her special issue Representations of Cognitive Impairment, which contains an essay about depictions of autism by Irene Rose that was also heralded at the conference. Furthermore, David Feeney presented an early version of the essay on blindness, aesthetics, and Irish drama that is included in the present issue.2 Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) must also be recognized as an exemplary institution in the British academy, given Lucy Burke's work as guest editor, author, and peer reviewer for the journal, not to mention Gavin Miller's contribution to JLD 2. …