Narrative Side-Stepping

Disability in the Novel Beyond Normalcy

Narrative Side-Stepping offers a new feminist, queer, crip way of reading that embraces expansive narrative possibilities for disabled characters. Instead of treating disabled characters as plot devices, metaphors, stereotypes, or marginal figures enforcing able-bodiedness, Christian Lewis argues that authors utilize disabled characters to question both social and literary conventions. Disability is thus not a limiting formal feature, but a source of experimentation and critique.

Focusing on the nineteenth century, which saw the rise of normalcy and the obsession over "normal" bodies, Narrative Side-Stepping centers female characters with mobility impairments in Victorian novels. These characters side-step by challenging the plots and roles available to them, offering narrative alternatives about how things "might have been." Examining the works of Charles Dickens, Anthony Trollope, Wilkie Collins, Harriet Martineau, and Charlotte Yonge, Lewis reconceptualizes the Victorian novel as a space where disabled characters can thrive.

By theorizing disabled characters and what they can do in a more reparative and capacious manner, Narrative Side-Stepping allows us to think about the novel beyond the confines of normalcy, side-stepping into a more accessible and accommodating world for those with disabilities.

UK Delivery:

• Free delivery on all orders of £10 or more.
• £1.49 delivery fee on orders below £10.
• UK orders are shipped via Royal Mail 2nd Class.

International Delivery:

• Flat rate delivery charges vary by country.

Dispatch and Delivery Times:

• All orders are shipped from our warehouse in Northampton, UK as soon as stock is available.
• UK mainland orders typically arrive within 3-7 working days via Royal Mail 2nd Class.
• International estimated delivery times:
• Europe & Channel Islands: 7 to 10 working days
• USA: 7 to 15 working days
• Rest of the World: 9 to 30 working days

View our full delivery infomation here.