“I have always been a white raven and a black sheep”
People with disabilities in post-Soviet Russia number about 12 million. However, academic research dedicated to many problems of this large segment of Russian society, among them issues of stigmatization and self-stigmatization, is still scant. The autobiographical material written by people with di...
Kaydedildi:
| Yayımlandı: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/alterjdr, |
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| Yazar: | |
| Materyal Türü: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Dil: | Anglais |
| Baskı/Yayın Bilgisi: |
Alter
2022
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| Konular: | |
| Online Erişim: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Özet: | People with disabilities in post-Soviet Russia number about 12 million. However, academic research dedicated to many problems of this large segment of Russian society, among them issues of stigmatization and self-stigmatization, is still scant. The autobiographical material written by people with disabilities in the 1990s-2000s constitutes an invaluable source for comprehending life experiences of disabled individuals in post-Soviet Russia. These texts reflect main life strategies of persons with congenital and acquired disabilities. The medical diagnosis of disability is a life-changing event for people with impairments as it radically changes their status in society and their way of life. This paper treats the diagnosis as the first step in the ordeal that could legitimately be described as a “rite of passage” to another world, the world of living with disability, their “netherworld.” By analyzing the autobiographies of disabled individuals this paper exposes how labels and notions applied to disability in contemporary Russian society are rooted in a wider Russian culture, and in Soviet attitudes towards disability and people with impairments. |
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