Disordered Perspectives: Disability and Normality in Jonathan Lethem's Motherless Brooklyn
Author
Tillebæk, Dan
Term
4. term
Education
Publication year
2008
Pages
75
Abstract
Denne kandidatafhandling undersøger, hvordan Jonathan Lethems detektivroman Motherless Brooklyn skildrer handicap og forestillinger om normalitet. Den argumenterer for, at romanen afviser udbredte litterære troper, hvor handicap bruges som spektakel til at bekræfte det normale. I stedet gives en person med Tourettes syndrom stemme, handlekraft og plads til eftertanke. Afhandlingen bruger handicapstudier som teoretisk ramme. Dette felt undersøger, hvordan samfundet definerer og værdisætter kroppe som normale eller handicappede. Afhandlingen giver et kort overblik over feltets centrale temaer og begreber, herunder handicap og normalitet som sociale konstruktioner, anderledeshed som en undertykt del af selvet, litterære traditioner omkring den handicappede figur samt politiske spørgsmål som diskrimination og borgerrettigheder. Derefter følger to analyser, som overlapper. For det første undersøges romanens (kvasi) hard-boiled detektivkonventioner, og hvordan de bruges og vendes på hovedet for at udviske skellet mellem den Anden og selvet. Der argumenteres for, at Lionel Essrog bevæger sig fra komisk outsider til kompetent privatdetektiv, fortæller og hovedperson, hvilket underminerer billedet af ham som uhyggelig Anden og fremhæver fælles menneskelighed. Analysen ser også på forholdet mellem krop og sind, den såkaldt afvigende krop i begær og homosociale hierarkier samt forbindelserne mellem Lionels tilstand og fortælling og træk ved postmoderne fortælleformer. For det andet introduceres Mikhail Bakhtins begreb om det karnivaleske, udviklet fra hans læsning af Francois Rabelais. Det karnivaleske beskriver festlige, omvendte øjeblikke, der udfordrer den officielle orden. Med denne optik kan Motherless Brooklyn læses som en modkulturel fortælling, der giver stemme til erfaringer, som den officielle kultur undertrykker. Lionels tics og verbale udbrud kan ses som spor af det karnivaleske, forstået som grundlæggende menneskelige snarere end fremmede. Samlet set konkluderer afhandlingen, at Motherless Brooklyn udfordrer dominerende kulturelle forståelser af normalitet og handicap ved at vise både menneskeligheden i den Anden og tilstedeværelsen af anderledeshed i det, der kaldes normalt.
This thesis examines how Jonathan Lethem’s detective novel Motherless Brooklyn portrays disability and ideas of normality. It argues that the book rejects common literary tropes that treat disability as spectacle to reassure the so-called normal reader. Instead, it gives a character with Tourette’s syndrome a voice, agency, and space to reflect. The study uses disability studies as its main framework. This field investigates how society defines and values bodies as normal or disabled. The thesis offers a brief survey of key concerns and terms, including disability and normality as social constructs, Otherness as a repressed part of the self, literary traditions around disabled characters, and political issues such as discrimination and civil rights. Two overlapping analyses follow. First, the thesis explores the novel’s (quasi) hard-boiled detective conventions and how they are used and subverted to blur the line between Other and self. It argues that Lionel Essrog moves from comic outsider to capable private eye, narrator, and protagonist, undermining the image of him as an uncanny Other and highlighting shared humanity. The analysis also considers the relation between body and mind, the so-called deviant body within desire and homosocial hierarchies, and links between Lionel’s condition and narration and features of postmodern storytelling. Second, the thesis introduces Mikhail Bakhtin’s concept of the carnivalesque, developed from his reading of Francois Rabelais. The carnivalesque describes festive, upside-down moments that question official order. Through this lens, Motherless Brooklyn appears as a countercultural narrative that voices experiences suppressed by official culture. Lionel’s tics and verbal outbursts can be read as traces of the carnivalesque, understood as fundamentally human rather than alien. Overall, the thesis concludes that Motherless Brooklyn challenges dominant cultural ideas about normality and disability by revealing the humanity of those labeled Other and the presence of Otherness within what is called normal.
[This summary has been rewritten with the help of AI based on the project's original abstract]
Keywords