Discerning Deliquescent Determinants of (Dis) Ability

Abstract

The conventionality in the conception of disability relies completely on the obviousness of physical and psychological impairment. The manifestation of bodily anomalies while distinguishing the disabled from the able-bodied also focuses on the resultant lives of disadvantage and advantage accrued to them. Such a perception fails to look beyond congenital disability and fathom the existence of disability induced by impeding social environments. This article is an attempt to explore such incapacitating factors in a social milieu within the framework of disability studies. Select gynocentric narratives by novelists Anita Rau Badami, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni and Toni Morrison constitute the frame of reference for this analysis. By employing the social model of disability. Deleuzian philosophy of minority and the theory of intersectionality, this essay seeks to reveal pervasive disabling elements present beneath the veneer of normal lives lead by the non-disabled. Coveted attributes like beauty, exceptional intellect and intuitive powers like clairvoyance certainly seem to be a privilege for those who are endowed with it. But an analysis of lived experiences in the empirical world indicate that the possession of these enabling traits or the quest for it can have deleterious effects-disabling lives. Thus this essay is an endeavour to discern how determinants in life facilitating ascent can deliquesce into a disabling descent.