Jude Riley

Jude's research examines the role and function of intellectual disability in Modernist literature of the American South

Thesis

‘Idiot-brained South’ - Intellectual Disability, Eugenics and Southern Identity in Southern Modernism

My project examines the role and function of intellectual disability in Modernist literature of the American South. Building upon recent literary and historical analyses within the critical framework of Disability Studies, my research questions why depictions of intellectual disability appear so frequently within this literature and aims to show not only how intellect and intellectual disability are discursively formed, but also how they are fundamentally interlinked with changing ideas about identity in both region and nation during this period.

Supervisors

Prof Brian Ward

Contact

Email: jude.riley@northumbria.ac.uk