Disability Studies Quarterly
Winter 2004, Volume 24, No. 1
<www.dsq-sds.org>
Copyright 2004 by the Society
for Disability Studies
Devices and desires:
science fiction, fantasy and disability in literature for young people
Jane Stemp, M.A. (Oxon.), Dip.Lib.
Wincanton, Somerset, England
E-mail: via k.saunders1@ukonline.co.uk
Abstract: Characters with disabilities have a surprisingly long history in science and fantasy fiction, but the date of a book’s publication is no guide to the manner in which the characters with disabilities are portrayed. This paper studies, from a personal rather than an academic viewpoint, fantasy and science fiction books in the writer’s own collection, and discusses some recurrent themes and motifs, with possible reasons for their use.
Outside of hospital, where life seemed almost entirely unrelated to the “real world”, I did not meet anyone else with a disability until I was 17. But as a voracious and, at times, undiscriminating reader (my parents’ bookshelves were filled with anything from Elizabeth Goudge to Dennis Wheatley, taking in historical and science fiction on the way) I had a circle of disabled characters [...]