Kaliane Ung, PhD
Visiting Assistant Professor of French
Abstract: In this talk, Dr. Ung will present aspects of her manuscript on disability in 20th and 21st century France. Disability has always been present in the literary French canon, but she will focus on the emergence of own voices narratives and the premises of a French "crip" (handi) social and political movement led by disabled people. After introducing the main case studies of her research, Dr. Ung will delve into contemporary neurodivergent narratives. She will contend that the autistic patient has been framed as a highly gifted young male by mainstream French media and novels. Contemporary works on autism by neurodivergent artists tend to destroy chronological narration and to favor fragments, or mixed media. All these works introduce a form of duality in terms of structure or genre to account for the original narration patterns imposed by neurodivergence. She will argue that despite giving a more accurate account of the patient’s experience, these stories participate in depicting the disabled subject as an eternal child and thus perpetuate many binaries: verbal/non-verbal, light autism (léger)/severe autism (lourd), and dependent/independent. Dr. Ung will also explore how contemporary French media packages autism as quirkiness for visual consumption, at the expense of autistic people.
Hosted by the Department of French & Italian
Location and Address
Room 501 Cathedral of Learning