Research project Combining a rich set of archival sources from the 1800s with literary fiction from the time describing people with disabilities, this project brings greater depth to the understanding of their life in history. While the focus is on Sweden, the questions, methods and results will interest international scholars in disability history, social history, cultural history and literature. The project findings can help promote the identity of disabled people living today.
Constructing a collective biography including c. 400 individual life histories drawn from parish registers and stories about disability in realist fiction during the 1800s, this project makes disabled lives and past perceptions of disability become more visible than in previous research. The results highlight diversity in their life and history and suggest strategies and networks that shaped their lives alongside disability type, gender and socio-economic origin. This will challenge mainstream views linking disability with disadvantages for people’s participation in society, past and present.
