Volume 9 (Söderfeldt)

Ylva Söderfeldt: From Pathology to Public Sphere

Bielefeld: transcript
2012, 290
p.
34,80 Euro
ISBN: 978-3-8376-2119-8

The so-called »German Method«, deaf education by means of spoken language, triumphed all over the Western world in the late 19th century. At the same time, however, as deaf German schoolchildren were taught to articulate and read lips, a movement of signing deaf adults emerged across the German Empire.

This book tells the story of how deaf people went from being isolated objects of welfare, administration, and education, to an urban petty bourgeoisie collectively making claims for self-determination. How the deaf organisations emerged, what they fought for, and who was left behind are the overarching questions addressed in this first comprehensive work on one of the world’s oldest movements of disabled people.

Ylva Söderfeldt (M.A.) is a historian living in Berlin, Germany. Her research interests are located in the juncture between intellectual and social history, focusing on the history of medicine and Disability History.

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