‘A Part of Some Other’s Experience’

Dark Victory , Interdependence, and the Limits of ‘Normalcy’ in the 1930s

Bibliographic Data

ID21703071
AuthorsAnna Debinski (0000-0001-7122-9468, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume27
Issue2
Pages1-25
Publication date2024-12-27
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueTMG Journal for Media History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1387-649X • E-ISSN: 2213-7653
PublisherNetherlands Institute for Sound and Vision (PUBLISHER • NL)
DOI10.18146/tmg.891
OpenAlexW4405877912
LanguageEN
References cited13

Disability representations are never divorced from their complex cultural and political contexts. This article argues that a culturally specific understanding of disability in the 1930s sheds new light on the superficially problematic disability representation in popular 1939 Hollywood melodrama, Dark Victory. While Bette Davis’ disabled heroine dies, perpetuating eugenic understandings of disabled people as unworthy of life, she also fosters a vision of disability as a valuable embodiment of interdependence. This echoes the increasing conflict around ‘normalcy’ evident in the period’s popular cultural material. Rejecting the ableist idealisation of independence, popular disabled figures such as Franklin D. Roosevelt and Helen Keller instead modelled interdependent lives. Contextualising Dark Victory’s representation of disability and friendship through archival material reveals multifaceted understandings of disability across the 1930s and highlights the crucial role of historical research in unearthing the nuances of cinematic disability representations

Aesthetics · Art · Art history · Disability studies · Eugenics · Friendship · Hollywood · Interdependence · Political science · Politics · Social science · Sociology · Victory · French Historical and Cultural Studies · Gender Studies · Historical Gender and Feminism Studies · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · History · Law

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access