NotNormativelyHuman 275
time and context. However, before rejoicing over this representational
plenitudeoneshouldnotoverlookthefactthatmanyofthesecharacters
aremorallyambivalent,ifnotoutrightnegative.Theyofferevidencefor
the point made above, namely that norms work culturally as conceptual
shorthand; they produce recognizability and thus are useful "sidekicks"
toroundoutthenormativenarrativeuniverse.Evenwhenthisisnotthe
case,non-normativeformsofembodimentaresofrequent,sovaried,so
ubiquitous, that they defy comfortable categorization (but see Mitchell
and Snyder; Stiker; Thomson). This is true also of U.S.-American
culture(s), past and present, where any attempt, even already on a pre-
critical empirical level, to address the presence of "disability" in
whatever cultural form and norm cannot but be overwhelmed by the
sheerabundanceandheterogeneityofthematerial.
A brief caveat is in order here. Not all forms of disability are alike,
of course not. Not only are mental and physical non-normativity
themselvesvastlydifferentphenomena;theirrepresentationalsotendsto
follow markedly different rationales, as I will show later on. At this
point it might be noted that while non-normativities of the body are
quite frequently thematized, those affecting cognitive functions have
been, with a few notable exceptions, mostly located in the elsewhere of
representation (Berger 20-23; Carlson 15). Invisible disabilities have
helped to reframe the passing subject as a "defiant figure who, by
crossing the borders of identities, reveals their instability" (E. Samuels,
"My Body" 243). In recent years, this imbalance has abated somewhat,
asespeciallyU.S.popularculture,infilmsandTVseries,seemstohave
"discovered"mentalimpairmentasafactorinboxofficesuccesssuchas
the blockbusterRainMain(1988; Barry Levinson, dir.), starring Dustin
Hoffman as Raymond with Savant-Syndrome, orForrest Gump(1994;
Robert Zemeckis, dir.) with Tom Hanks as an athlete who suffers from
some form of mental impairment. The fact that Hollywood superstars
suchasDustinHoffmanandTomHanksacceptedsuchrolesonceagain
provesthepointofagrowingawarenessinthepublicsphereofmentally
impairedpeople.
Aside from current high-profile representations such as these, there
is a long but sometimes overlooked history of how people (real or
fictionalones)withnon-normativities,basednotonlyonphysicalbuton
mental or psychological processes, have been inserted into popular
culture without their disability taking center stage. Here, the example