Description
In Diminished Faculties Jonathan Sterne offers a sweeping cultural study and theorization of impairment. Drawing on his personal history with thyroid cancer and a paralyzed vocal cord, Sterne undertakes a political phenomenology of impairment in which experience is understood from the standpoint of a subject that is not fully able to account for itself. He conceives of impairment as a fundamental dimension of human experience, examining it as both political and physical. While some impairments are enshrined as normal in international standards, others are treated as causes or effects of illness or disability. Alongside his fractured account of experience, Sterne provides a tour of alternative vocal technologies and practices; a study of “normal” hearing loss as a cultural practice rather than a medical problem; and an intertwined history and phenomenology of fatigue that follows the concept as it careens from people to materials science to industrial management to spoons. Sterne demonstrates how impairment is a problem, opportunity, and occasion for approaching larger questions about disability, subjectivity, power, technology, and experience in new ways. Diminished Faculties ends with a practical user’s guide to impairment theory. Jonathan Sterne offers a sweeping cultural study and theorization of impairment, in which experience is understood from the standpoint of a subject that is not fully able to account for itself. Jonathan Sterne is James McGill Professor, Department of Art History and Communication Studies at McGill University, and author of MP3: The Meaning of a Format and The Audible Past: Cultural Origins of Sound Reproduction, both also published by Duke University Press, and is editor of The Sound Studies Reader. He also makes music and other audio works. Visit his website at https://sterneworks.org. 1. Degrees of Muteness 1
2. Meet the Dork-o-Phone 41
3. In Search of New Vocalities: An Imaginary Exhibition 69
4. Audile Scarification: On Normal Impairments 117
5. There Are Never Enough Spoons 157
Impairment Theory: A User's Guide 193
Credits 209
Notes 217
Bibliography 249
Index 281
“In this intimate critical phenomenology, Jonathan Sterne shows us that the agential subject of disability studies is interpretive, nonstandard, somewhat unreliable, and nevertheless political. Diminished Faculties is at once an account of the lived experience of impairment and an inventory of what it can engender. Crip humor, technological hacks, imaginary archives, and material metaphors form the myriad registers of Sterne's authorial voice.”
“Offering a compelling account of the phenomenology of impairment, this fascinating, brilliant, and witty book will take disability studies in at least three new directions.”
“With its capacious, unpressured mode of being, theorizing, and storytelling, this profound book teaches us how to think and how to be.”
"Diminished Faculties is a lyric, genre-bending book, that is forcefully argued, rendered beautifully, and will open the path for further research. It is deeply generous both to reader and future scholar, as Sterne’s work always is. But additionally, this is a book that so many have needed, and need now, a way of situating the present emergency in a much longer, political history."
"A new book by Sterne is a seismic event, an idea drop so heavy that it takes time to fully process. Sterne is preternaturally skilled at taking apart prosaic, everyday objects . . . connecting them to history and culture and formulating elegant arguments that make you see and hear the world in new ways. His scholarship is rigorous, but he also maintains a fluid, approachable style that isn’t dry, as much academic prose tends to be. . . . His wide-ranging, cross-disciplinary outlook is not only instructive, but also empowering and inspiring."
"An intimate and rigorous journey, indispensable for anybody who wants to engage with the issue of disability in media and reflect on its importance for organisations, accessibility and inclusion."
"So often disabled people are expected to clarify to others what is wrong with them, a pedagogical task that more sophisticated critical explorations of disability can’t quite accomplish. But through his multi-genre approach, Sterne is able to assert and justify his existence while studying the cultural and technological forces that shape it. This is why it’s gratifying to read disability scholarship written by disabled scholars."
"A triumph from beginning to end. . . . The use of humility and humor, specifically sourced from the collective and individual lived experiences of disabled people (i.e. crip humor), is a major strength of the manuscript. Sterne is also skillful at bringing disability scholars into conversation with one another and engaging readers interactively as interlocutors."
"A thoughtful analysis of originality and imagination in the midst of so-called diminished faculties. . . . Sterne’s exploration of what constitutes valued labor within the academy is particularly illuminating. Sterne also provides useful resources on impairment theory and extensive notes and references providing an excellent foundation for future research in the subject area."
"Diminished Faculties offers a new theoretically and methodologically accessible impairment theory as a political phenomenology of bodies and technologies. The book provides a rigorous study of technology, hearing, and voice with respect to impairment. In addition, Sterne engages with his own lived experiences of diminished faculties in speech, voice, hearing, and the feeling of wellness. . . . The book is not only insightful, but also funny and quite quirky."
