Epilepsy Metaphors: Liminal Spaces of Individuation in American Literature 1990-2015

Eleana Vaja

Published by transcript Verlag 2017

Epilepsy Metaphors

Liminal Spaces of Individuation in American Literature 1990-2015

Eleana Vaja

In the series Lettre

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783839441183

Overview
Contents

About this book

Between 1990 and 2015, American literature saw the emergence of a new corpus of epilepsy metaphors which tackle the stigma of epilepsy within three areas: society, body, and language. Eleana Vaja introduces concepts such as protometaphors, relational metaphors, epileptic texts, and metastability to categorize and examine these foci further. Applying philosophy as well as "hard sciences" (i.e. mathematics, medicine, physics) to disability studies, her study of selected works by Siri Hustvedt, Thom Jones, Reif Larsen, Dennis Mahagin, Audrey Niffenegger, Rodman Philbrick, and Lauren Slater shows how epilepsy metaphors redefine the notion of the "liminal" and the "normal".

Author / Editor information

Eleana Vaja (PhD) taught American literary and cultural studies at the University of Cologne. Her research interests include U.S. American literature, philosophy, and disability studies.

Supplementary Materials

Leseprobe

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	1
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	5
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	7
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	9
I. The Folklore of Epilepsy
I.A Falling Asleep: The Stigma of Epilepsy in History Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	21
I.B American Literature: From Stigma to Metaphor? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	39
I.C Ableist Metaphors: Historical Motifs and Normalcy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	55
II. Liminal Spaces of Individuation
II.A Jürgen Link and Michel Foucault: Symptomatic Signification of Proto- and Flexmetaphors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	69
II.B George Canguilhem: Vital Materiality and Relational Metaphors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	81
II.C Gilbert Simondon: Transindividual Metastability and Conceptual Metaphors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	95
III. Epilepsy Metaphors in American Literature (1990–2015)
III.A Metaphor and Society: Proto- and Flexmetaphors and Calculated Individuation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	115
III.B Metaphor and Materiality: The Relational Body and Its Electric Individuation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	157
III.C Metaphor and Idioms: Siri Hustvedt’s Metastable Rhetoric as Transindividuation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	191
Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	235
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	239

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: transcript Verlag
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 256
Keywords: Conceptual Metaphors; Metastability; Normativity; Siri Hustvedt; Literature; Body; Medicine; American Studies; Disability Studies; Literary Studies

eBook

Published: October 27, 2017
ISBN: 9783839441183