Elusive Kinship: Disability and Human Rights in Postcolonial Literature

199 Pages·2022·3.765 MB·English

by  Christopher Krentz

Elusive Kinship

Christopher Krentz
Elusive Kinship
Disability and Human Rights in
Postcolonial Literature
TEMPLE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Philadelphia • Rome • Tokyo
TEMPLE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122
tupress.temple.edu
Copyright © 2022 by Temple University—Of The Commonwealth System
of Higher Education
All rights reserved
Published 2022
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Krentz, Christopher, author.
Title: Elusive kinship : disability and human rights in postcolonial
literature / Christopher Krentz.
Description: Philadelphia : Temple University Press, 2022. | Includes
bibliographical references and index. | Summary: “This volume analyzes
the figure and representation of disability in postcolonial literature,
unpacking how depictions of disability both reflected and directly
impacted the growth of disability human rights in the latter half of the
twentieth century”—Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021046379 (print) | LCCN 2021046380 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781439922217 (cloth) | ISBN 9781439922224 (paperback) |
ISBN 9781439922231 (pdf)
Subjects: LCSH: Disabilities in literature. | People with disabilities in
literature. | Postcolonialism in literature. | Human rights in literature.
Classification: LCC PN56.D553 K74 2022 (print) | LCC PN56.D553 (ebook) |
DDC 823/.914093527—dc23/eng/20220211
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021046379
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021046380
The paper used in this publication meets the requirements of the American
National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed
Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48–1992
Printed in the United States of America
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For Michelle

Contents
Introduction 1
1 On Kinship with Literary Characters: The Power of Fiction 31
2 Between Indigenous Beliefs and Colonial Invasion: The Vital
Role of Disability in Achebe’s Things Fall Apart 41
3 Extraordinary Bodies: Magic Realism, Disability,
and Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children 63
4 How Metaphor Can Also Be Realism: Disability and Rights
in Coetzee’s Fiction 85
5 A Sense of Care: Women Writing Disabled Women in
the Global South 107
6 The Limits of Human Rights: Twenty-First-Century
Depictions of War, Poverty, Global Capitalism, and Disability 127
Epilogue 153
Acknowledgments 157
Notes 159
Works Cited 169
Index 181

Elusive Kinship