Blindness: A Cultural History of Blindness (original) (raw)

In Anishinaabemowin, says Maya Chacaby, “Aatisokan,” or traditional story, is rooted in the word “tis” (or “dis”), meaning umbilical connection to the source of existence, as well as in “kan,” meaning an artificial construct made for a certain purpose. A relation to this Indigenous meaning of a story as “a device created for the purpose of connecting us to the source of existence” is what orients our telling of this cultural history of blindness. By collecting and addressing some Western ways of depicting the significance of blindness since around World War I, this chapter will focus on how these depictions connect to modern forms of knowing the existence of blindness. We do so, however, by assuming that blindness—a historical presence that always signals human potentiality—is itself an umbilical connection to the source of existence whose meaning might exceed any modernist perception of it. Treating blindness as an occasion to reveal modern commitments grounding ordinary descriptions and representations ironically provides us with a method of inquiry that can put readers in touch with the workings of the cultural history of perception itself. This chapter explores how life with blindness has been described in order to examine modern ways of “seeing” people, including those who do not see. James Baldwin (quoted in Brim 2014: 1) suggests, “What one can and cannot see says something about you.” Consider, for example, the following encyclopedia entry regarding blindness—how does it see and not see blindness, what does this say about modern existence, and how does it connect us with what is essential to a modernist understanding of blindness?