“An Inexhaustible Ocean of Likenesses”: Reevaluating the Role of Language in Helen Keller’s The World I Live In
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Date
2021-09-13
Authors
Bresnahan, Daniel
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
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Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
From a young age, Helen Keller was accused of plagiarism over her ability to write about the material world. Such critiques were founded on an understanding of language as an abstraction meant to signify a material reality which many believed Keller was closed off from due to her deafblindness. In this paper, I argue that Keller’s The World I Live In rethinks and reclaims the role of language, metaphor, and materiality in response to such criticism, showing metaphor to be hermeneutic and co-constructive of knowledge. As such, I contend that World challenges purely rhetorical readings of metaphor pervasive in current Disabilities Studies scholarship. Drawing upon Paul Ricoeur’s discussions of metaphor and the hermeneutic quality of figurative language, I implore Disability Studies scholars to reconsider metaphor non-rhetorically and argue that Keller’s World demonstrates that the use of metaphorical language can be an empowering means for acquiring knowledge.