English (United Kingdom)

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/featured_content/oa?rat=en

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/highlighted_journal/

Global: Zendy Plus annual

Presents the access of premium content as premium feature

Premium Content

Presents the keyphrase highlighting as premium feature

Keyphrase Highlighting

Presents the summarisation as premium feature

Summarisation

Insights

Presents the pdf analysis as premium feature

PDF Analysis

Presents the zaia usage as premium feature

ZAIA

Global: Zendy Tools annual

Global: Zendy Free Plan

Global: Zendy Tools monthly

Global: Zendy Plus monthly

This paper explores some of the tropes that fictional representations of trans* and disabled characters in literature and film share. In doing so it seeks to suggest that the experiences of real-life trans* people and people with disabilities might over-lap to some degree: in matters of medical supervision and intervention (sometimes unwanted), social discrimination, being stared at, and violence. But also there is the shared experience of being mis-represented in certain ways in fiction and on film. In fiction the environment often used for disabled characters may evoke pity, horror or disgust (Garland-Thompson, 1997). I argue that this is also frequently the case for trans* characters in books and on film too. The suggestion that a trans* or disabled character might be a ‘fake’ is also explored, with its concomitant trope of narrative ‘exposure’. The general trend to see trans* and disabled experience as being so non-normative that it must become the entire focus of a character’s characterisation, or that this aspect of the character’s life must be used to further the story’s plot-line is noted. Later the paper discusses two books where such tropes are generally avoided and the characterisation is more subtle. These are, The Turbulent Term of Tyke Tiler by Gene Kemp (1978) aimed at middle grade readers, and The Cereus Blooms at Night by Shani Mootoo (1999) which is aimed at adults. The paper explores how the presentation of the trans* character appears alongside a representation of disabled buddy in these two books. Why has this occurred and does this undermine or complement the trans*’ characters narrative? The paper concludes by suggesting a positive future in terms of new writing and what may become more prevalent in literature and on film. What is perhaps desirable is the utilisation of trans* and disabled characters as ordinary rather than extraordinary in their trans* and disabled selves, storylines that do not focus upon this aspect beyond all other aspects of characterisation, and the opportunity for such characters to lead traditional genre fictions.

‘The Odd Couple’: Trans* Characters and Disabled Buddies in Two Works of Fiction