Henry Lawson and Judith Wright were deaf – but they’re rarely acknowledged as disabled writers. Why does that matter?
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Monday, July 3, 2023
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Most of us know Henry Lawson and Judith Wright are icons of Australian literature.
Key Points:
- Most of us know Henry Lawson and Judith Wright are icons of Australian literature.
- On AustLit, the Australian literature database, only ten of the 788 items on Lawson mention his deafness.
- Read more:
Les Murray said his autism shaped his poetry – his late poems offer insights into his creative process
Henry Lawson: deafness inherent to his writing
- It is difficult to precisely describe his level of deafness from then on, but he needed anyone speaking to him to be close by and to face him.
- His deafness remained a key influence on his content and style throughout his 35-year writing career.
- He wrote about his own deafness in essays such as A Fragment of Autobiography, and poems such as The Soul of a Poet.
- Hearing people often make deafness a constant focus when they write deaf characters – but in his stories, he would often only mention a character’s deafness once.
- Deafness was also part of his writing style.
Judith Wright’s deafness: ‘creatively generative’
- Three years later, she was diagnosed with otosclerosis, a form of atypical bone growth within the middle ear that causes progressive hearing loss.
- Her deafness meant she was denied entry into the women’s forces during World War II.
- When the servicemen returned and her role became insecure, she made a critical decision, one directly informed by her deafness.
- Read more:
Friday essay: Judith Wright in a new light
Ignoring disability has consequences
- And often the exceptions, like I Can Jump Puddles (1955) by Alan Marshall, who was partially paralysed as a result of childhood polio, are interpreted as narratives of overcoming disability – rather than the narrative of disability pride that they are.
- When they grow up to be publishers, teachers, librarians, editors, and booksellers, they unthinkingly pass this message on to the next generation by continuing to omit disability from Australian writing.
- The consequences of erasing disability from Australian literature are worse for disabled readers and writers.
- Like Lawson and Wright, renowned Australian poet Les Murray acknowledged his disability (autism) for decades before his death, starting in 1974.
- When we understand impairment as a complex condition rather than simply a deficit, we realise disability engenders creativity.