Janet McTeer as Prue Sarn and John Bowe as Kester Woodseaves (1989 BBC Precious Bane) Dear friends and readers, I watched this powerful two-hour film last night, partly because I’ve had it so long and it has Janet McTeer in the star role, the disabled heroine. We read and discussed Mary Webb’s Precious Bane and [...]
Archive for the ‘Disabilty studies’ Category
Maggie Wadey’s Precious Bane out of Mary Webb’s novel, featuring Janet McTeer & John Bowe
Posted in 19th century novels, 20th century culture, disability issues, Disabilty studies, Elizabeth Gaskell, Film adaptations, film studies, gothic, political novels/films, romance, women's novels, women's art, womens' films, tagged drama, Hardy, heroine's text, Janet McTeer, Lawrence, Mary Webb, Poldark, prue sam, Stella Gibbons on March 16, 2012 | 4 Comments »
Winston Graham’s The Walking Stick: Graham’s first disabled heroine
Posted in 20th century culture, disability issues, Disabilty studies, Film adaptations, Poldark, political novels/films, politics, Winston Graham, tagged heroine's text, polio victim on October 2, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
David Hemmings as Leigh Hartley painting Samantha Eggar as Deborah Dainton (The Walking Stick, 1970) Dear friends and readers, Yes, I’ve read yet another novel by Winston Graham: The Walking Stick (published by Doubleday, 1967). In his Memoirs of a Private Man, Graham says “judged solely by financial criteria, [it was] the most successful novel [...]
Winston Graham’s Bella: the last Poldark novel (12, Cornwall 1818-20): bonding with characters
Posted in 18th century novels, 19th century novels, autism, disability issues, Disabilty studies, historical fiction, novels of sensibility, Poldark, political novels/films, Winston Graham, tagged Cornwall on August 3, 2011 | 3 Comments »
Jeremy Poldark (Ioan Gufford) and Ben Carter (Hans Matheson) rowing into Nampara Cove (1996 Poldark, Stranger from the Sea) Dear friends and readers, It’s been a couple of weeks now since I finished Bella Poldark, the 12th and last of the Poldark novels. Written a year (2002) before Graham died (2003), this book brings the [...]
Haddon’s Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time: a cruel & hollow caricature
Posted in 20th century culture, disability issues, Disabilty studies, political novels/films, tagged Aspergers, autism, fiction, Mark Haddon on August 1, 2011 | 8 Comments »
Hugh Dancy as Adam Dear friends and readers, A critique and review of Mark Haddon’s Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. File this under reviews meant to alert readers to a book or film (or art-work of whatever kind) that works to harm people. Kate Chisholm’s supposedly empathetic book on anorexia, My Hungry [...]
Harm spreading across the globe: privatizing medical knowledge
Posted in 20th century culture, disability issues, Disabilty studies, medicine, political novels/films, politics, teaching, Uncategorized, tagged Atul Gawande, Fernando Mereilles, Frederick Wisemen, Helen Epstein, hospital, John LeCarre, Marcia Angell, near death, Philip Mirowski, Science, Sheldon Krimsky, Simon Channing-Williams on July 14, 2011 | 14 Comments »
Wit (directed by Mike Nichols, screenplay by Emma Thompson based on Margaret Edson’s play): Jason, the resident (Jonathan Woodward) has disregarded Miss Bearing (Emma Thompson), the patient’s request to be DNR on the grounds “she’s research!” Suzie, her nurse (Audra McDonald), is protecting the space around Miss Bearing. “It is simply no longer possible to [...]
Ann Patchett’s State of Wonder: or, another patron saint of lliars — and artists
Posted in 20th century culture, disability issues, Disabilty studies, novels of sensibility, women's novels, women's art, tagged Ann Patchett, Bel Canto, Lucy Grealy, Magician's Assistant, State of Wonder, Truth and Beauty on June 30, 2011 | 12 Comments »
Marina from a Sidney Opera House, Australian production (Shakespeare’s Pericles) Dear friends and readers, I’ve decided to write a blog on Ann Patchett’s latest novel, State of Wonder, mainly because it’s been so mis-characterised by most reviews. Far from a book about medicine, South America, or grave variant on Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, it’s a [...]
Foremother poet: Mehitabel Wright (1697-1750)
Posted in 18th century, disability issues, Disabilty studies, feminism, Film adaptations, film studies, Foremother Poetry, tagged Anne Finch, Fay Weldon, Jane Taylor, Margaret Homans, Maureen Honey, Mehitable wright, Patricia Hodge on June 3, 2011 | 3 Comments »
Adolph Menzel (1815-1905), Staircase by Night (1848), Rooms with a View (see account of exhibit) Dear friends and readers, I was not able to write a blog-entry for a foremother poet last week, so I’m half tempted to write two this week, the second of them focusing on black women poets of whom I (unfortunately) [...]
The Grandfather’s story: Robert MacNeil’s reports on Autism today on Lehrer’s Newshour
Posted in 20th century culture, disability issues, Disabilty studies, tagged aspergers syndrome, education, health care, Jim Lehrer, prejudice, wretches and jabberers on April 23, 2011 | 9 Comments »
Robert MacNeil plays with his autistic grandson, Nick Dear friends and readers, Twenty days ago I wrote a review of touching, and intelligent film, about two disabled adults, both autistic, Wretches and Jabberers by Gerardine Wurzburg. I praised the film and hope that it gets more distribution than a few movie-houses in a few cities [...]
Julia Kavanagh: disabled 19th century woman of letters
Posted in 18th century, 18th century novels, 19th century novels, Ann Radcliffe, Austen, disability issues, Disabilty studies, Fanny Burney, feminism, Foremother Poetry, French culture, French novels, Life Writing, Travel Writing, women's memoirs, women's novels, women's art, tagged Amelia Opie, aphra behn, germaine de stael, julia kavanagh, julie lespinasse, madame de layfayette, madame roland, maria edgeworth, sarah fielding, scudery on April 1, 2010 | 9 Comments »
Dear friends and readers, On the last day of the Christmas MLA conference this past Xmas, I managed to buy for myself Eileen Fauset’s excellent literary biography of Julia Kavanagh, a 19th century Irish woman of letters: The Politics of Writing. Fauset’s biography shows Kavanagh to have been a courageous woman, good novelist, and significant [...]
