Raising Adam: Ethnicity, Disability, and the Ethics of Life Writing in Michael Dorris's The Broken Cord

Abstract

Michael Dorris's The Broken Cord (1989) combines elements of several life writing genres—for example, Native American autobiography, autoethnography, parental memoir, and disability memoir. Its mixture of genres raises questions about the ethics of parental life writing and the representation of people with disabilities. Ultimately, despite its reformist intentions, the book echoes rather than revises traditional inscriptions of race and disability.