Lord Byron and the Quest for Affirmation

With the rise of New Disability Studies, literary §scholars are continually reevaluating works by §disabled writers such as Lord Byron, who possessed a §club-foot. Some scholars, in addition to §reevaluating Byron s work, emphasize the legacy that §rests upon both his notorious lifestyle and his §extraordinary ability as a prolific writer. §Unfortunately, his lifestyle, and not his writing, §typically becomes the primary focus of too many §critics who ignore the value of New Disability §Studies. And yet, Byron s struggle with disability §and his consequent quest for affirmation laid the §foundation to make Byron s work exceptional and §explain why he continues to be studied as a §prominent literary genius. This book demonstrates §that disability inflects Byron s poetry to a greater §extent than Byron scholarship has hitherto §acknowledged. Furthermore, LORD BYRON AND THE QUEST §FOR AFFIRMATION will focus on and engage with the §hidden implications of disability in Byron s Manfred §and Cain and the explicit use of disability in The §Deformed Transformed while also examining Byron s §Calvinistic perspective of disability.