Disability, Representation and Voice of Resilience: A Study of Christy Brown's My Left Foot

Abstract

Literature plays a significant role in representing the body, and its literary interventions  transform perspectives on and practices regarding disability, further reshaping society's  stance. Literature and history have ample examples of the achievements of disabled persons, but they too had to undergo rejection, exclusion and defiance before positioning themselves  into the mainstream. Christy Brown suffered from cerebral palsy and authored a memoir, My  Left Foot, which is an example of the struggle to break society’s preconceived notions about disability. His medical condition segregated him from the immediate social environment.  Despite facing constant challenges, Christy produced a text that showcases existing social  patterns and further raises the voice for the beliefs to be re-examined or altered.  Marginalisation and exclusion reduce the opportunities to contribute productively. The  marginalisation of the disabled describes the way disability is understood in the international  context and discourses. The lives of the disabled have been a history of silence, further  relating to Gayatri Spivak’s ‘Can the Subaltern Speak’. The present paper will discuss  disability not as a feature of ‘dysfunctional’ bodies and minds, but as a creation of social  structure. Secondly, it will examine how literature represents and constructs the concept of  disability and can serve as a tool for inclusivity. Thirdly, the study will examine the silence,  representation, and socio-cultural dimensions of My Left Foot to highlight the factors that  bridge the gap between individual and societal beliefs.