Special Issue of Texas Studies in Literature and Language

“Time and Disability in Literature”

Guest Edited by Adam Barrows, Professor of English, Carleton University (Ottawa, Canda)

Disability Studies has provocatively insisted upon a reimagination of what it means to live in time. Its theorization of time and temporality is central to its project of challenging societal constructs that valorize some minds and bodies while degrading others. Building upon pioneering critical time studies in feminist and queer theory, crip theory has articulated the temporal dimensions of disability: the ways in which time itself functions as a disabling force, and the ways in which disabled bodyminds make and take time differently. In 2021, Ellen Samuels and Elizabeth Freeman co-edited a special issue of South Atlantic Quarterly on “Crip Temporalities,” bringing together pioneering academics and artists in the field of disability studies and activism to explore “crip timescapes” and to interrogate temporal rhythms and regimes that confine and manage disabled bodyminds. Building on the work of the contributors to that volume, this special issue of TSLL focuses more specifically on the ways in which the temporalities of disability have been represented, interrogated, and reimagined in literary texts throughout history. We invite essays that consider not only literary representations of disabled characters, but also the ways in which literary form and structure contribute to the textual construction of disability. How does disability affect the ways that characters relate to time? How do authors construct their fictional timescapes in ways that either promote or foreclose disability futures?

We encourage essays from scholars across a range of literary periods (Medieval, Early Modern, Victorian, Modern, Contemporary). Essays should be between 6,000 and 9,000 words (inclusive of notes and works cited), in the most recent version of Word and in MLA format. Please include an abstract of no more than 100 words and a brief biographical note. Submissions should be made to TSLL@austin.utexas.edu by December 1, 2025. Please contact the guest editor, Adam Barrows, with any questions at adambarrows@cunet.carleton.ca.