Disability and Life Writing in Post-Independence Ireland

This book is the first to examine life writing and disability in the context of Irish culture. It will be valuable to readers interested in Disability Studies, Irish Studies, autobiography and life writing, working-class literature, popular culture, and new media. Ranging from Sean O’Casey’s 1939 childhood memoir to contemporary blogging practices, Disability and Life Writing in Post-Independence Ireland analyzes a century of autobiographical writing about the social, psychological, economic, and physical dimensions of living with disabilities. The book examines memoirs of sight loss with reference to class and labor conditions, the harrowing stories of residential institutions and the advent of the independent living movement, and the autobiographical fiction of such acknowledged literary figures as Christy Brown and playwright Stewart Parker. Extending the discussion to the contemporary moment, popular genres such as the sports and celebrity autobiography are explored, as well as such newer phenomena as blogging and self-referential performance art.

Elizabeth Grubgeld is Professor of English at Oklahoma State University, USA. In addition to many essays on Irish literature and Disability Studies, she is author of two prize-winning monographs, George Moore and the Autogenous Self: The Autobiography and Fiction (1994) and Anglo-Irish Autobiography: Class, Gender, and the Forms of Narrative (2004).