Disability Theory

Since the 1970s the ascendancy of minority identities based on gender, race, and sexuality has transformed the landscape of cultural theory, embracing greater political urgency and relevance. ""Disability Theory"" provides indisputable evidence of the value and utility that a disability studies perspective can bring to these and other key questions. Tobin Siebers persuasively argues that disability studies transfigures basic assumptions about identity, ideology, language, politics, social oppression, and the body. At the same time, he advances the emerging field of disability studies by putting its core issues into contact with signal thinkers in cultural studies, literary theory, queer theory, gender studies, and critical race theory.It boldly rethinks theoretical questions of the last thirty years from the vantage point of disability studies.

Disability Theory is a field-defining book: and if you're curious about what disability"" has to do with ""theory,"" it's just the book you've been waiting for, too. - Michael Berube, Penn State University ""Magisterially written, thoroughly researched, and polemically powerful."" - Michael Davidson, University of California, San Diego ""A powerful manifesto that calls theory to account and forces readers to think beyond our comfort zones."" - Helen Deutsch, University of California, Los Angeles

Tobin Siebers is V. L. Parrington Collegiate Professor of Literary and Cultural Criticism, Professor of Art and Design and the Chair of the Department of Comparative Literature at the University of Michigan.