The illegible man : disability and masculinity in twentieth-century America / Will Kanyusik.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kanyusik, Will, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American literature--20th century--History and criticism.

American literature.

Disabilities in literature.

Masculinity in literature.

Motion pictures--United States--History--20th century.

Motion pictures.

Disabilities in motion pictures.

Masculinity in motion pictures.

Genre:

Literary criticism.

Film criticism.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xi, 217 pages) : illustrations

Edition:

First edition.

Other Title:

Disability and masculinity in twentieth-century America

Disability and masculinity in 20th-century America

Place of Publication:

Bloomington, Indiana : Indiana University Press, [2025]

Summary:

"How does the sudden onset of disability impact the sense of self in a person whose identity was, at least in part, predicated on the possession of what is culturally understood to be an "able" body? How does this experience make visible the structures enabling society's shared notions of heteronormative masculinity? In the United States, the Second World War functioned as a key moment in the emergence of modern understandings of disability, demonstrating that an increased concern with disability in the postwar period would ultimately lead to greater incoherence in the definitions and cultural meanings of disability in America. The Illegible Man examines depictions of disability in American film and literature in twentieth-century postwar contexts, beginning with the first World War and continuing through America's war in Vietnam. Will Kanyusik searches for the origin of discourse surrounding disability and masculinity after the Second World War, examining both literature and film-both fiction and documentary-their depictions of disability and masculinity, and how many of these texts were created by the relationship between the culture industry and the Office of War Information in the 1940s. Supported by original archival research, The Illegible Man presents a new understanding of disability, masculinity, and war in American culture"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Disability, masculinity, and the problem of legibility in postwar American fiction

From trust to suspicion : disability, masculinity, and the American culture of scrutiny in the War department documentary

Tactile visions : disability, prosthesis, and the problem of recognition in postwar American cinema

Returns and repressions : economies of violence and anxieties on the home front

Landscapes of loss : disability, the American wilderness, and the remasculinization of the Vietnam veteran

Coda : disability, resilience, and the cost of American hegemony under neoliberalism.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on January 02, 2025).

ISBN:

9780253071804

0253071801

9780253071811

025307181X

OCLC:

1482610739