Sight Loss and the Tethered Self in 21st Century Novels

This book explores the representation of visual impairment in 21st century novels. It arises from new research within the growing field of blind studies, engaging with the scholarship of David Bolt, Julia Miele Rodas, Devon Healey and Heather Tilley, among others. Multiple definitions of ‘tethering’ are used to describe relationships between disabled and non-disabled protagonists. In the texts considered here, blind or partially sighted characters encounter discriminatory (ocularcentric) attitudes; equally, they are situated within profound friendships and experience romantic love. The paradoxical ‘tether trope’ can signify a restraining cord or a guided running tool: it may describe a process of disempowerment or a liberating form of connectivity. After a contextualising Introduction (incorporating discussions of Joseph Conrad’s The End of the Tether and Wilkie Collins’ The Dead Secret and Poor Miss Finch), each chapter focuses on a particular literary genre: namely, biofiction, romance and historical fiction. These chapters consider nuanced and complex representations of vision loss (and, more briefly, hearing loss) in contemporary novels by David Lodge, Julian Barnes, Shrabani Basu, Eric Lindstrom, Lucy May Lennox and Anthony Doerr. This study is informed experientially by the author’s own severe visual impairment.