ABSTRACT

This article brings together Critical Disability Studies and the ethics of neighboring to examine not only the intimate alterity of disabled figures in medieval literature, but also how nonnormative embodiments are a recurring feature in the ethical discourse of the neighbor. Neighbor-love and disability justice share an ethical orientation that emphasizes difference, yet the ethics of the neighbor stresses an asymmetrical and non-reciprocal relationship between self and other whereas an ethics of care emphasizes interdependence. However, attending to the nonnormative embodiment of the neighbor introduces a transformed sense of reciprocity to the neighborly encounter. In order to think about the generative possibilities of the intersection between neighborliness and disability, the paper explores varied encounters with nonnormative embodiments, including the meeting between King Edward and the disabled beggar Ghillie Michael in Matthew Paris’s History of Saint Edward the King and the confrontation between Arthur’s court and the loathly lady in The Wedding Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle. Each of these encounters seemingly illustrate a drive towards normalcy, a temporality of inclusion where the strangeness of the neighborly figure is neutralized through miraculous or magical means. Centering nonnormative figures in these narratives, however, reveals the working of parasynchrony, a shared temporality that resists a turn toward normativity and enables reciprocity based not on exchange but on interdependence and mutual care.

摘要

本文将“严重残疾研究”与邻居的伦理学结合起来，不仅考察了中世纪文学中残疾人形象的亲密变化，而且考察了非规范性实施方式如何在邻居的伦理学话语中反复出现。邻国爱与残疾正义有着强调差异的伦理取向，而邻国伦理则强调自我与他人之间的不对称和非互惠关系，而关怀伦理则强调相互依存。但是，参加邻居的非规范性实施例会给邻居遇到的事物带来互惠互感的转变。为了思考邻居与残障之间相交的产生可能性，本文探索了非规范性实施方式的各种遭遇，国王圣爱德华的历史以及《婚礼高威爵士和拉涅尔爵士》中亚瑟的宫廷与讨厌的夫人的对峙。这些相遇中的每一个似乎都说明了朝正常化的方向前进，这是一种包容的暂时性，其中通过神奇或神奇的手段消除了邻居人物的陌生感。然而，在这些叙述中以非规范性人物为中心，揭示了超共时性的工作，超共时性是一种共同的时间性，可以抵抗转向规范性，并实现互惠而不是基于交换，而是基于相互依存和相互关心。