Resisting the Normative Representation of Disability through fairy tales in And They Lived…Ever After

The more visible congenital disorders, those birth defects that are immediately apparent when a child is born, have produced feelings of fear and awe since the earliest time. Children born with physical defects have evoked a religious response since at least as early as 2000 B.C. when some 62 birth defects, whose appearances among Assyrian newborns were painstakingly examined and interpreted by professional soothsayers, were described on clay tablets found in the library of Ninevah (Eberly 1). Fairy tales construct a norm of a ‘temporary able body’ through their characters and stories. And They Lived…Ever After: Disabled Women Retell Fairy Tales by Rising Flame is a collection of retelling fairy tales. It incorporates the everyday experiences of people with disabilities in this text and brings forth an inclusive representation. Through the use of several voices, the stories humanise characters we might assume to be villains, witches, or cruel stepmothers. Examples of these are the voices of Rapunzel's guardian/captivator, the sister and stepmother of Cinderella, and the mother duck who gave birth to an ugly duckling. Methods of narrative prosthesis, negative imagery, critical discourse analysis and critical disability theory. This paper will critically examine the fairytales of this anthology through these retellings, trying to resist the normative temporary able-bodied norm, create a counter-narrative and talk about inclusivity and accessibility.

Keywords: Accessibility, Inclusion, Lived Experience, People with disabilities, Retelling