The Ecological and Mad Others: Arts-Based Research, Disability Studies, and the Power of Narrative

• In Event: 25.054 - Disability Narrative Reclamation: The importance of Raising the Voices of Disabled Students

Abstract

My experiences of Madness are not mine alone and are important in that they speak to the greater cultural context. As such, I examined my accounts alongside The Yellow Wallpaper (Stetson, 1892). Though a fictionalized account of the author’s experiences of Madness, it engages with the same threads present in my experiences and is regarded as an essential piece of feminist literature. These texts will be approached with the intent of considering if and how Othering speaks through the narratives. This exploration comes from a material feminist, Eco-Mad perspective using an EcoJustice framework using fiction-based research (Leavy, 2015). In considering the roots of suffering, is the oppression of Mad humans and the greater-than human entangled?

Author

• Jacqueline St. Antoine, Wayne-Westland Community School District