Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Visualizing the included subject : photography, progress narratives and intellectual disability

Altermark, Niklas LU and Edenborg, Emil LU (2018) In Subjectivity 11(4). p.287-302
Abstract

By examining photographic depictions of subjects labeled as ‘intellectually disabled’, this article theorizes how photography performs the ideological function of producing narratives of historical progression. Recurrent representations of, on the one hand, a dark past of state institutionalization and repression and, on the other hand, the present as a time when intellectually disabled people are active, included and happy, function to locate oppression in a bygone era, which effectively obscures how power has transformed rather than disappeared. This relates to how the narrative break between the past exclusion and present inclusion conceals an inherent paradox in the constitution of intellectually disabled subjectivity; at the same... (More)

By examining photographic depictions of subjects labeled as ‘intellectually disabled’, this article theorizes how photography performs the ideological function of producing narratives of historical progression. Recurrent representations of, on the one hand, a dark past of state institutionalization and repression and, on the other hand, the present as a time when intellectually disabled people are active, included and happy, function to locate oppression in a bygone era, which effectively obscures how power has transformed rather than disappeared. This relates to how the narrative break between the past exclusion and present inclusion conceals an inherent paradox in the constitution of intellectually disabled subjectivity; at the same time, members of this group are both included by citizenship and classified as lacking the necessary characteristics of the ideal citizen.

(Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Disability, Disability studies, Historical narratives, Narrative, Visibility
in
Subjectivity
volume
11
issue
4
pages
287 - 302
publisher
Palgrave Macmillan
external identifiers
  • scopus:85054753081
ISSN
1755-6341
DOI
10.1057/s41286-018-0057-y
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
09d5244a-195c-4dd4-be43-ff33873af024
date added to LUP
2018-11-09 09:13:32
date last changed
2022-03-25 05:37:42
@article{09d5244a-195c-4dd4-be43-ff33873af024,
  abstract     = {{<p>By examining photographic depictions of subjects labeled as ‘intellectually disabled’, this article theorizes how photography performs the ideological function of producing narratives of historical progression. Recurrent representations of, on the one hand, a dark past of state institutionalization and repression and, on the other hand, the present as a time when intellectually disabled people are active, included and happy, function to locate oppression in a bygone era, which effectively obscures how power has transformed rather than disappeared. This relates to how the narrative break between the past exclusion and present inclusion conceals an inherent paradox in the constitution of intellectually disabled subjectivity; at the same time, members of this group are both included by citizenship and classified as lacking the necessary characteristics of the ideal citizen.</p>}},
  author       = {{Altermark, Niklas and Edenborg, Emil}},
  issn         = {{1755-6341}},
  keywords     = {{Disability; Disability studies; Historical narratives; Narrative; Visibility}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{4}},
  pages        = {{287--302}},
  publisher    = {{Palgrave Macmillan}},
  series       = {{Subjectivity}},
  title        = {{Visualizing the included subject : photography, progress narratives and intellectual disability}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/s41286-018-0057-y}},
  doi          = {{10.1057/s41286-018-0057-y}},
  volume       = {{11}},
  year         = {{2018}},
}