Dissertation Defense | ‘Disability and Its Affective Affordances: Deformity, Decay, Disruption, Distortion’ – Andries Hiskes

Dissertation Defense | ‘Disability and Its Affective Affordances: Deformity, Decay, Disruption, Distortion’ – Andries Hiskes
Date: 16 April 2024
Time: 10:00
Location: Academy Building, Leiden University
Registration: Through form.

This dissertation explores the ways in which affective responses to disabled bodies are represented and how this invites us to read these bodies aesthetically. I argue that this affective impact can be understood as an affordance, a term I use to describe how the appearance of and interaction with disabled bodies produces affective responses such as fear, wonder, or disgust. I study the relationship between representation and affective reactions through literature and other art forms. Through close readings of literary texts and works of art, this dissertation offers an alternative to so-called model thinking—an approach that emphasizes categorization. Instead, I propose a reading that focuses on how bodily capacities are culturally and socially translated into (dis)abilities. Unlike taxonomic approaches that categorize and generalize, this method allows moving from the particular to the private. Works of art, although prone to generalization, emphasize their unicity and resist categorization. By analyzing how different art forms represent disabled bodies, the dissertation brings a new dimension to understanding our emotional responses and the aesthetic appreciation of bodily diversity.