Cultures of Representation is the first book to explore the cinematic portrayal of disability in films from across the globe. Contributors explore classic and recent works from Belgium, France, Germany, India, Italy, Iran, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Netherlands, Russia, Senegal, and Spain, along with a pair of globally resonant Anglophone films. Anchored by David T. Mitchell and Sharon L. Snyder's coauthored essay on global disability-film festivals, the volume's content spans from 1950 to today, addressing socially disabling forces rendered visible in the representation of physical, developmental, cognitive, and psychiatric disabilities. Essays emphasize well-known global figures, directors, and industries - from Temple Grandin to Pedro Almodovar, from Akira Kurosawa to Bollywood - while also shining a light on films from less frequently studied cultural locations such as those portrayed in the Iranian and Korean New Waves. Whether covering postwar Italy, postcolonial Senegal, or twenty-first century Russia, the essays in this volume will appeal to scholars, undergraduates, and general readers alike.

"Outstanding essays... Highly recommended. CHOICE

Benjamin Fraser is professor of Hispanic studies at East Carolina University. Among his book publications are Disability Studies and Spanish Culture: Films, Novels, the Comic, and the Public Exhibition and Deaf History and Culture in Spain: A Reader of Primary Documents. He is the executive editor of the Journal of Urban Cultural Studies, a senior editor at the Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies, an associate editor at Hispania, and coeditor of the Hispanic Urban Studies book series.