AN Engendering the Modern Body Helen Deutsch and Felicity Nussbaum MICHIGAN “DEFECTS” Corporealities: Discourses of Disability David T. Mitchell and Sharon L. Snyder, editors Books available in the series: “Defects”: Engendering the Modern Body edited by Helen Deutsch and Felicity Nussbaum Revels in Madness: Insanity in Medicine and Literature by Allen Thiher Points of Contact: Disability, Art, and Culture edited by Susan Crutchfield and Marcy Epstein A History of Disability by Henri-Jacques Stiker “DEFECTS”: Engendering the Modern Body Helen Deutsch and Felicity Nussbaum, Editors Ann Arbor THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN PRESS Copyright © by the University of Michigan 2000 All rights reserved Published in the United States of America by The University of Michigan Press Manufactured in the United States of America Printed on acid-free paper 2002 2001 2000 2003 he ay 2 ok No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher. A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Defects : engendering the modern body / Helen Deutsch and Felicity Nussbaum, editors. p. cm.— (Corporealities) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-472-09698-2 (cloth : acid-free paper) ISBN 0-472-06698-6 (pbk. : acid-free paper) 1. Disability studies—Great Britain—History—17th century. 2. Disability studies—Great Britain—History—18th century. 3. Disability studies—France—History—17th century. 4. Disability studies—France—History—1 8th century. I. Deutsch, Helen, 1961- II. Nussbaum, Felicity. III. Series. HV1568.25.G7D44 1999 363.4’0941—de21 99-6767 CrP For Michael Meranze, Marc Wilett, and in memory of Bean and Uncle Dave bdasn tee” -_ 4 ir y om ayy d ; Ay | 1A ol! Oy pe ie i ~ »! : + : [ \. ; i : a u a U P oP) > ; . 7 mae saan : cul hi eee tee ‘erm: bi yA on aN oon ee PS ; ‘be Peg wma ae laf ye $e iy ie ‘, Senile Peas okt Br neh ee ted ogee Hwy dating by, Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgments xi Introduction Part 1. Disability Dumb Virgins, Blind Ladies, and Eunuchs: Fictions of Defect 31 Felicity Nussbaum Dr. Johnson, Amelia, and the Discourse of Disability in the Eighteenth Century 54 Lennard J. Davis Paper, Picture, Sign: Conversations between the Deaf, the Hard of Hearing, and Others 75 Nicholas Mirzoeff Part 2. Monstrosity In the Bodyshop: Human Exhibition in Early Modern England 95 Stephen Pender Making a Monster: Socializing Sexuality and the Monster of 1790 127 Barbara M. Benedict viii ¢ Contents Monstrous Knowledge: Representing the National Body in Eighteenth-Century Ireland 154 Joel Reed The Author as Monster: The Case of Dr. Johnson 177 Helen Deutsch Part 3. Imperfections Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and the “Glass Revers'd" of Female Old Age 213 Jill Campbell “Perfect” Flowers, Monstrous Women: Eighteenth-Century Botany and the Modern Gendered Subject 252 Elizabeth Heckendorn Cook Obedient Faces: The Virtue of Deformity in Sarah Scott's Fiction 280 Robert W. Jones Afterword: Liberalism, Feminism, and Defect 303 Cora Kaplan Contributors 319 Index 323