Down Syndrome Culture

Life Writing, Documentary, and Fiction Film in Iberian and Latin American Contexts

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by Benjamin Fraser

Type

Studies

Subject

Sociology

Keywords

sociology, Spain, Latin America, representation

Publishing date

2024

Publisher

University of Michigan Press

Collection

Corporealities: Discourses of Disability

Language

English

Relative size

Physical desc.

Paperback • 204 pages
6 x 9 inches (15 x 23 cm)

ISBN

978-0-472-05691-0

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Book Presentation:
Looking at Down syndrome representation from a global perspective

People with Down syndrome possess a culture. They are producers of culture. And in the 21st century, this culture is increasingly visible as a global phenomenon. Down Syndrome Culture examines Down syndrome alongside its social, cultural, and artistic representation. Author Benjamin Fraser draws upon neomaterialist and posthumanist approaches to disability as well as the work of disability theorists such as David Mitchell, Sharon Snyder, Susan Antebi, Tobin Siebers, and Stuart Murray. By particularly focusing on Down syndrome, he showcases the unique place that it holds as an intellectual and developmental disability—one that fits between the social and medical models of disability—within the disability studies field.

Down Syndrome Culture also pushes the traditionally Anglophone borders of disability studies by examining examples in Spanish, Catalan, and Portuguese-language texts, and incorporating the work of thinkers in Iberian and Latin American studies. Through a close analysis of life writing, documentaries, and fiction films, the book emphasizes the central role of people with Down syndrome in contemporary cultural production. Chapters discuss the autobiography of Andy Trias Trueta, the social actors of the documentary Los niños [The Grown-Ups] (2016), dancers from Danza Mobile, and a variety of fiction films, challenging ableist understandings of disability in nuanced ways. Ultimately, this book reveals the lives, cultural work, and representations of people with trisomy 21 in an international context.

Benjamin Fraser is Professor of Iberian and Latin American Cultural Studies at the University of Arizona.

See the publisher website: University of Michigan Press