1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910786500303321

Autore

Flaugh Christian

Titolo

Operation freak [[electronic resource] ] : narrative, identity, and the spectrum of bodily abilities / / Christian Flaugh

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Montreal, : McGill-Queen's University Press, 2012

ISBN

0-7735-4027-X

1-283-83482-0

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (340 p.)

Disciplina

843.91409

Soggetti

Abnormalities, Human, in literature

Identity (Philosophical concept) in literature

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

""Cover            ""; ""Title Page                 ""; ""Copyright Page                     ""; ""Dedication Page                      ""; ""Table of Contents""; ""Acknowledgments                      ""; ""Introduction: Freaks, Spectrums, and Francophone Narratives of Ability                                                                             ""; ""1: Locations and Locutions of Ability Operations                                                       ""; ""Interlude One""

""2: Excising Conjoined Citizenship or, the Beheading of Linguistic Abilities in Jacques Godbout's Les tetes  Papineau""""Interlude Two""; ""3: Regenerating Family Fortune: Incising Religious Orders of Gender and Procreation in Tahar Ben Jelloun's L'enfant de sable and La nuit sacree                                                                                                                                                      ""

""Interlude Three""""4: Witchy Ways: Transregional Mutilations of Race and Supernatural Abilities in Maryse Conde's Moi, Tituba sorciere Noire de Salem                                                                                                                                           ""; ""Conclusion""; ""Notes""; ""Bibliography ""; ""Index""

Sommario/riassunto

In Operation Freak, Christian Flaugh embarks upon an exploration of the intricate connection between the physical bodies and narratives that, subjected to all manner of operations, generate identity. The author spotlights such voluntary and involuntary acts to show how discourses of ability, disability, and bodily manipulation regularly influence the production in and of various Francophone texts. Flaugh's



foundation is the critical examination of mutually-informing narratives: Francophone novels that hyperbolically signal normative discourses through quintessential "freaks" (monstres) such as the Siamese twin, the bearded lady, and the exotic witch; and the related sociocultural master narratives from North America, North Africa, and the Caribbean. Employing disability and freak culture theories alongside studies of identification and narrative, Flaugh's close readings move beyond polarized discussions of "disabled" and "non-disabled" bodies. They expand such discussions to articulate how ability - like identity and narrative - is impermanent. It passes and it is passed throughout a spectrum at the same time that it intersects regularly with various narratives of identity like citizenship, gender, and race. Each chapter reveals how "operation" is a profit-driven identification process informed by abilities and constantly reproduced by surgeons, slave masters, writers, and the "freak" protagonists themselves. An unflinching look at such manipulation, Operation Freak illustrates the undeniably visceral relation between bodily ability, identity, narrative, and normality carved onto the body of the freak of culture (monstre de la culture).