Published Paper Details:

The hegemonic structures which establish themselves on the basis of ‘Othering use the human body as one of the primary tools while creating this distinction. Skin color, size, appearance, linguistics and other physical aspects have, in most cases, proved to be the most important tools used by those in power to create the division while generating a feeling of submission within the subaltern. One such discrimination which was not even a critical discourse till post-1970s is the segregation of persons with disabilities. While other differences have now been significantly refashioned as the potentiality of alternative modes of being, social constructivism continues to resist including disability as an alternate becoming. The majority of our extant critical theories have continued to ignore disability in their theories of queer, gender, racialized, classed, sexualized, environmentalist and intersectionalist approaches to questions of embodiment. Literature has engaged with the idea of the body being the nucleus of discrimination since centuries. The existence of ‘non-normative’ characters in many epics, plays and novels serves as proof of that. A novel that deals with the ‘What is normative?’ debate, as early as in the 18th century is Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels. Among one of the most widely read books around the world with multiple theatrical and cinematic adaptations available, Gulliver’s Travels is hardly ever been interrogated from the disability perspective. Through the dreamlike experiences of the protagonist Gulliver, the novel establishes that an individual’s appearance is not governed as much by their bodily differences as by their socio-cultural placement. When placed within an alien environment, Gulliver’s normativeness is disrupted and the distinction between normal and non-normal gets blurred. The paper will closely examine Gulliver’s Travels from the lens of Disability Studies to academically establish that ‘normal’ is a hegemo nic construct.