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Hearing happiness : deafness cures in history / Jaipreet Virdi.
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Virdi, Jaipreet, author.
- Series:
- Chicago visions + revisions
- CHICAGO VISIONS + REVISIONS.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, 1712-1778--Political and social views.
- Rousseau, Jean-Jacques.
- Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, 1712-1778.
- Deafness--Treatment--United States--History--19th century.
- Deafness.
- Deafness--Treatment--United States--History--20th century.
- Deafness--Treatment.
- History.
- Political and social views.
- United States.
- Physical Description:
- 1 online resource.
- polychrome
- Place of Publication:
- Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2020.
- [Place of publication not identified] : [publisher not identified], [2020]
- System Details:
- text file
- Summary:
- Weaving together lyrical history and personal memoir, Virdi powerfully examines society's--and her own--perception of life as a deaf person in America. At the age of four, Jaipreet Virdi's world went silent. A severe case of meningitis left her alive but deaf, suddenly treated differently by everyone. Her deafness downplayed by society and doctors, she struggled to "pass" as hearing for most of her life. Countless cures, treatments, and technologies led to dead ends. Never quite deaf enough for the Deaf community or quite hearing enough for the "normal" majority, Virdi was stuck in aural limbo for years. It wasn't until her thirties, exasperated by problems with new digital hearing aids, that she began to actively assert her deafness and reexamine society's--and her own--perception of life as a deaf person in America. Through lyrical history and personal memoir, Hearing Happiness raises pivotal questions about deafness in American society and the endless quest for a cure. Taking us from the 1860s up to the present, Virdi combs archives and museums in order to understand the long history of curious cures: ear trumpets, violet ray apparatuses, vibrating massagers, electrotherapy machines, airplane diving, bloodletting, skull hammering, and many more. Hundreds of procedures and products have promised grand miracles but always failed to deliver a universal cure--a harmful legacy that is still present in contemporary biomedicine. Weaving Virdi's own experiences together with her exploration into the fascinating history of deafness cures, Hearing Happiness is a powerful story that America needs to hear.
- Contents:
- Introduction: cures of yesterday
- Improbable miracles
- Ear spectacles
- Electric wonders
- Fanciful fads
- Edge of silence
- Epilogue: beyond eyes of incredulity.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI Available via World Wide Web.
- Description based on online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on October 20, 2020).
- Local Notes:
- Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Edward Potts Cheyney Memorial Fund.
- Other Format:
- Print version: Scott, John T. Rousseau's Reader : Strategies of Persuasion and Education
- ISBN:
- 9780226690759
- 022669075X
- Publisher Number:
- 99985357114
- Access Restriction:
- Restricted for use by site license.
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