Apocalyptic disability: mass disability and fear in apocalyptic narratives
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Abstract
Depictions of a mass onset of sensory disability have become a recent trend in popular apocalyptic narratives. Bird Box (2018), directed by Susanne Bier, Blindness (2008), directed by Fernando Meirelles, and Perfect Sense (2011), directed by David Mackenzie, all portray an apocalypse of disability. Likewise, H.G. Wells’ story “The Country of the Blind” and the television show See (2019), directed by Francis Lawrence, depict post-apocalyptic societies of disability. These narratives amplify fears of the body: bodily vulnerability and bodily inadequacy, as well as fears of disability: of gaining a disability and of proximity to disability. Narratives that depict the onset of disability as a catastrophic, apocalyptic event rely on, and generate, fears of becoming disabled. A critical lens of disability theory offers a way to study fears of disability and to recognize the social repercussions of these narratives.