| Although much theoretical and historical work has been undertaken recently that explores the human body, pain, illness, disease, and cultural and discursive constructions of bodily phenomena, little research in the humanities has examined the experience of disability and its attendant cultural constructions. Social factors such as the establishment and distribution of insurance monies, the diminishment of access to education and meaningful employment, and pervasive public stereotypes of weakness and asexuality all play a role in the daily experience of disability, yet these experiences are frequently omitted from contemporary intellectual discussions of the human body.; Examining the ways in which literary representations of disability function in well-known works of German literature, this dissertation employs an interdisciplinary approach. Through analysis of textual production from seemingly disparate discourses of law, medicine, religion, and sexuality, this study examines the portrayal of male figures who acquire disabilities in conjunction with a national war. This particular focus allows for analysis of prevalent historical notions of individualism, citizenship, and nationhood. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing's Enlightenment drama Minna von Barnhelm suggests that physical impairment need not compromise an officer's ability to serve his nation. Achim von Amim's Romantic novella Der tolle Invalide auf dem Fort Ratonneau problematizes the causation of mental illness and ultimately positions disability as a placeholder for deviance and dangerousness. Leonhard Frank's 1918 collection of novellas Der Mensch ist gut calls attention to the use and abuse of metaphors designed to entice young men into military service. Gunter Grass's post-war novel Die Blechtrommel offers a paradoxical portrayal of Oskar Mazareth's dwarfism, suggesting on one hand the capacity of these extended metaphors of disability to articulate resistance to fascism, while on the other hand implying Oskar's inherent complicity with German National Socialism through his violent, destructive behavior.; Despite some development, a resilient and often unqualified notion of human wholeness appears in the primary texts under consideration. This study of four literary works from two centuries of German culture ultimately reveals both discontinuities and continuities in the discursive function of disability over time. |
