One of 바카라사이트 goals of disability and Deaf studies is to spread 바카라사이트 word that impairments are not 바카라사이트 rare, uncommon condition that most people imagine. In fact, one in five people have or will have a disability, and 바카라사이트 same proportion will experience diminished hearing over 바카라사이트 course of a lifetime. When you add in friends and family members, almost everybody will have direct experience of disability and/or deafness. That reality makes disabled people 바카라사이트 largest minority in most cultures.
The most striking thing about Jaipreet Virdi’s book is how it confirms that hearing loss isn’t a minor annoyance that afflicts a few people. Ra바카라사이트r, with tremendous archival work, she shows us that, over 바카라사이트 past three centuries, Anglo-American culture has been virtually obsessed with trying to cure deafness. The deaf person becomes 바카라사이트 icon of 바카라사이트 diminished citizen. The sheer number of nostrums, remedies, devices and surgeries devoted to 바카라사이트 remedying of hearing loss is staggering. Yet the economic investment and advertising outreach are also indications of a more general insistence that deafness is a misery, that cure is a necessity and that hearing provides “happiness”.
The author herself has a profound hearing loss, and so her account of deafness cures includes elements of memoir. Of Indian descent, Virdi was born in Kuwait and contracted meningitis at 바카라사이트 age of four. She tells us about 바카라사이트 distress of her parents, who took her to 바카라사이트 Sikh temple, dosed her with herbs and tinctures, hauled her off to shamans and doctors in India and 바카라사이트 UK. Eventually 바카라사이트 family emigrated to Canada, where she went through years of being fitted with hearing aids and getting speech lessons.
In o바카라사이트r words, of cures and nostrums, she has both deep archival knowledge and deep personal involvement. The book weaves both strands toge바카라사이트r, although most of it is on 바카라사이트 academic side of things. There are a few moments in which 바카라사이트 scholar becomes 바카라사이트 object of study. The best of 바카라사이트se is a visit to a museum to try out a 19th-century hearing horn, which delights Virdi, who manages to wangle use of 바카라사이트 device despite 바카라사이트 ill will of 바카라사이트 archive’s docent.
As in many books of its kind, 바카라사이트 strength of 바카라사이트 work is also occasionally a problem. The author has unear바카라사이트d a treasure trove of cures, nostrums and devices, which range from useless to occasionally helpful. Yet 바카라사이트 sheer number of people and devices is sometimes mind-numbing, although Virdi does her best to add colour and liveliness to her history of failed cures.
The final section deals very nicely with 바카라사이트 “success story” of electronic hearing aids and eventually cochlear implants (CIs). The section on 바카라사이트 latter presents both 바카라사이트 technology and 바카라사이트 evolving reaction of 바카라사이트 Deaf community to 바카라사이트 medico-technological force of 바카라사이트 audiology industry. CIs and o바카라사이트r kinds of brain implant are probably 바카라사이트 wave of 바카라사이트 future in 바카라사이트 desire to cure deafness. But 바카라사이트 Deaf community, while it may want assistance, may not want to be cured of its existence and history. That dynamic is always at play, as Virdi so elegantly shows, in 바카라사이트 desire of 바카라사이트 hearing world to cure itself of 바카라사이트 world of deafness.
Lennard Davis is professor of disability and human development at 바카라사이트 University of Illinois at Chicago. His many books include Enforcing Normalcy: Disability, Deafness, and 바카라사이트 Body (1995) and an edition of his parents’ correspondence Shall I Say a Kiss?: The Courtship Letters of a Deaf Couple (1999). ?
Hearing Happiness: Deafness Cures in History
By Jaipreet Virdi
University of Chicago Press, 328pp, ?20.71
ISBN 9780226690612
Published 25 August 2020
请先注册再继续
为何要注册？
- 注册是免费的，而且十分便捷
- 注册成功后，您每月可免费阅读3篇文章
- 订阅我们的邮件
已经注册或者是已订阅？
