Before Borders: A Legal and Literary History of Naturalization by Stephanie Degooyer (review)

Abstract

can only approximate the vast range of possible topics a disability studies reading of Joyce can pursue” (8). More essays like Rafael Hernandez’s “‘Dark in Mien and Movement’: Blindness and the Body in Ulysses”—which delves into how disability representation in Joyce is suffused with the colonialist racial hierarchies of his characters’ Ireland—would have deepened the engagement of this collection with disability studies’ current iteration as an intersectional and racially diverse field. At times, too, I felt that the authors in Joyce Writing Disability lapsed into the timehonored tradition of hagiography in Joyce scholarship. As modernist scholars develop more work in disability studies, we must be careful not to too quickly absolve our beloved artists from engagement with the eugenics-saturated culture of the time. Nevertheless, this collection’s stated purpose is to introduce Joyce scholars to disability studies perspectives, and in that capacity it’s a valuable and exciting text. My hope is that Colangelo’s editorial project, and the contributors’ apt demonstration of a range of disability studies perspectives, will inspire readers to consider Joyce Writing Disability a strong foundation for a rich, diverse scholarly conversation about disability in Joyce and modernist literature more broadly.