About this ebook
Language is integral to our
social being. But what is the status of those who stand outside of language?
The mentally disabled, āwildā children, people with autism and other
neurological disorders, as well as animals, infants, angels, and artificial
intelligences, have all engaged with language from a position at its borders.
In the intricate verbal constructions of modern literature, the
ādisarticulateāāthose at the edges of languageāhave, paradoxically, played
essential, defining roles.
Drawing on the disarticulate figures in
modern fictional works such as Billy Budd, The Sound and the Fury,
Nightwood, White Noise, and The Echo Maker, among others,
James Berger shows in this intellectually bracing study how these characters
mark sites at which aesthetic, philosophical, ethical, political, medical, and
scientific discourses converge. It is also the place of the greatest ethical
tension, as society confronts the needs and desires of āthe least of its
brothers.ā Berger argues that the disarticulate is that which is unaccountable
in the discourses of modernity and thus stands as an alternative to the
prevailing social order. Using literary history and theory, as well as
disability and trauma theory, he examines how these disarticulate figures
reveal modernityās anxieties in terms of how it constructs its others.
social being. But what is the status of those who stand outside of language?
The mentally disabled, āwildā children, people with autism and other
neurological disorders, as well as animals, infants, angels, and artificial
intelligences, have all engaged with language from a position at its borders.
In the intricate verbal constructions of modern literature, the
ādisarticulateāāthose at the edges of languageāhave, paradoxically, played
essential, defining roles.
Drawing on the disarticulate figures in
modern fictional works such as Billy Budd, The Sound and the Fury,
Nightwood, White Noise, and The Echo Maker, among others,
James Berger shows in this intellectually bracing study how these characters
mark sites at which aesthetic, philosophical, ethical, political, medical, and
scientific discourses converge. It is also the place of the greatest ethical
tension, as society confronts the needs and desires of āthe least of its
brothers.ā Berger argues that the disarticulate is that which is unaccountable
in the discourses of modernity and thus stands as an alternative to the
prevailing social order. Using literary history and theory, as well as
disability and trauma theory, he examines how these disarticulate figures
reveal modernityās anxieties in terms of how it constructs its others.
Language is integral to our
social being. But what is the status of those who stand outside of language?
The mentally disabled, āwildā children, people with autism and other
neurological disorders, as well as animals, infants, angels, and artificial
intelligences, have all engaged with language f...
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December 22, 2024
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About the author
James Berger is Senior Lecturer in American Studies and English at Yale University. He is author of After the End: Representations of Post-Apocalypse (1999) and a book of poetry, Prior (2013). He is the editor of Helen Kellerās The Story of My Life: The Restored Edition (2003).
James Berger is Senior Lecturer in American Studies and English at Yale University. He is author of After the End: Representations of Post-Apocalypse (1999) and a book of poetry, Prior (2013). He is the editor of Helen Kellerās The Story of My Life: The Restored Edition (2003).
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