Polio and its aftermath : the paralysis of culture / Marc Shell.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Shell, Marc.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Poliomyelitis--Social aspects--United States.

Poliomyelitis.

Poliomyelitis--Patients--Biography.

People with disabilities in motion pictures.

Culture in motion pictures.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (335 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, c2005.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In this book, Shell, himself a victim of polio, offers an inspired analysis of the disease. Part memoir, part cultural criticism and history, part meditation on the meaning of disease, Shell's work combines the understanding of a medical researcher with the sensitivity of a literary critic. He deftly draws a detailed yet broad picture of the lived experience of a crippling disease as it makes it way into every facet of human existence.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Prologue

I: Autobiographies of a Disease

1. One Polio Story

2. In the Family

3. A Polio School

II: Stasis and Kinesis

4. Paralytic Polio and Moving Pictures

5. Handi-Capitalism and Cinema Business

6. The Cast of Rear Window; or, Cinema and Akinesia

III. Politics

7. Polio and the Great Wars

8. Remembering Roosevelt

9. What We Can Learn, If We Hurry

Aftermath

Notes

Acknowledgments

Text Credits

Illustration Credits

List of Boxes

Name Index

Subject Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. [231]-295) and indexes.

ISBN:

9780674043541

0674043545

OCLC:

431337445