Blindness in literature

Different cultures through history have depicted blindness in a variety of ways; among the Greeks, for example, it was a punishment from the gods, for which the afflicted individual was often granted compensation in the form of artistic genius. Judeo-Christian literature positioned blindness as a flaw; only through a cure could God’s love be made manifest, when the scales would fall away from the eyes of an afflicted individual upon contact with a holy man or relic. Almost without exception in early literature, blind people could bring this condition down upon themselves through sin or trespasses against the gods, but were never the sole instruments of its reversal.

It is impossible to make a blanket generalization about how the blind were treated in literature beyond that point - they were marvelous, gifted, evil, malicious, ignorant, wise, helpless, innocent, or burdensome depending upon who wrote the story - except to say that blindness is perceived to be such a loss that it leaves an indelible mark on a person’s character.

Even pioneers in training the blind, such as Dorothy Harrison Eustis, harboured negative stereotypes about them. Blind people had, in her opinion, grown so accustomed to waiting on others as to be passive and 'whiney.'

Father Thomas Carroll, who founded the Carroll Centre for the Blind, wrote Blindness: What It Is, What It Does and How to Live with It in 1961. In it, he characterized blindness in terms of 20 losses, and as the “death” of the sighted individual.

Literature by blind people

While blind and visually impaired people had contributed to the body of literature for centuries, the creation of autobiographical materials, or materials specific to blindness, is relative new. Most people are familiar with Helen Keller, who was both blind and deaf, but there has been considerable progress since the publication of her work.

• Blind author Tom Sullivan has written several inspirational books, including If You Could See What I Hear, about his life and accomplishments.
• Stephen Kuusisto wrote about his experiences as a visually impaired person in Planet of the Blind.
• John Hull, a university lecturer, wrote about going blind in Touching the Rock: An Experience of Blindness.
• Georgina Kleege, visually impaired since age 11, wrote about her life and how it was affected my cultural perceptions of blindness in Sight Unseen.

Links

Blindness: Is Literature Against Us? An Overview of the Blind in Literature and Movies