The Lure of the Normal: Researching Depictions of Disability in Select Young Adult Graphic Narratives

The present paper intends to focus on the way disability is presented in graphic narratives read by young adults. It is an analysis and interrogation of the portrayals of disability in select graphic narratives like Marc Hempel’s, Mike Carey’s and Sonny Liew’s Re-gifters (2007), Mike Carey’s, Jim Fern’s and Eric Nguyen’s Crossing Midnight (Vol. 1) (2007), Cecil C. Castellucci’s and Jim Rugg’s The Plain Janes (2007), Keith Giffen’s and John Rogers’ Blue Beetle: Shell-Shocked (2007), Sara Varon’s Robot Dreams (2007), Gary Whitta’s and Ted Naifeh’s Death, Jr. (2007) and Bob Kane’s and Sam Keith’s Batman: Secrets (2007). The study thereby effectively adds a grip and disability perspective to the field of Graphic Novels. The objectives of the research paper are framed with a view to find answers to and get clear cut notions regarding core issues like the nature, range and type of disabilities most often featured, whether one disability received more attention than others, detection of a systemic pattern, if any, that is followed in the treatment of disabilities; also looks at deviations from the hitherto followed pre-set, pre-determined models and conventions in the treatment of disability, whether the characters are defined by their disability, whether stereotypes are used in graphic novels to portray people with disabilities and finally whether the depictions of disability are problematic, faulty, misleading and misguiding. This study also inevitably draws on the age-old specificity, oppressive power and contemporaneity of the concept of normalcy. It endeavours to deconstruct the very idea of normalcy. This sort of dissection denaturalizes all the hegemonic notions of normativity thus reframing ableism as a problem that concerns everyone. The current text also recommends the arena of emerging discipline called Graphic Novels to be an integral part of curricula for nouveau reading exercises and exciting learning experiences