Naslov
Disability as Otherness in Bernard Pomerance's Play The Elephant Man and David Lynch's Film Adaptation

Autori
Periš, Lucija

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Radovi u zbornicima skupova, cjeloviti rad (in extenso), znanstveni

Izvornik
Osobe s invaliditetom u umjetnosti, znanosti, odgoju i obrazovanju / Ileš, Tatjana ; Sabljar, Mirna - Osijek : Akademija za umjetnost i kulturu Sveučilišta Josipa Jurja Strossmayera u Osijeku, 2021, 702-715

ISBN
978-953-8181-33-7

Skup
1. međunarodna umjetnička i znanstvena konferencija Osobe s invaliditetom u umjetnosti, znanosti, odgoju i obrazovanju

Mjesto i datum
Osijek, Hrvatska, 05.12.2019. - 06.12.2019

Vrsta sudjelovanja
Predavanje

Vrsta recenzije
Međunarodna recenzija

Ključne riječi
Bernard Pomerance, David Lynch, disability, otherness, The Elephant Man

Sažetak
The aim of this paper is to point to the presence of a critique of disability-based social stratification in Victorian England in Bernard Pomerance’s play The Elephant Man (1979) and the accompanying film adaptation (1980) by David Lynch, arising from the better social status of people with disabilities in the twentieth century. The paper explores disability as an impermanent social construct intrinsically linked to the ruling ideology or the Other. Set in Victorian England, the play and the film depict the life of John Merrick who suffers from a rare genetic disorder which causes disability and leads to his family disowning him. The play, published a century after John Merrick’s death, points to the issue of social inclusion of people with disabilities in Victorian England, while the film adaptation seeks to display the impact of Victorian ideology on personality development in people with disabilities. The paper relies on Lacan’s concept of the Other to explain the motivation behind the portrayal of a marginalized disabled character. The implementation of Lacan’s teachings points to the fact that the social perception of disability is fluid, and that otherness is not a fixed trait of disability, but a reflection of the Other. Thus, a change in the Other, which inevitably happens over time, results in a change in the perception of the condition as otherness.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Filologija, Znanost o umjetnosti

POVEZANOST RADA