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Otherness have been regarded as manipulative, unreliable, and even
outrightduplicitous.
Forthisreason,disabilityisinescapablyentangledintheculturaland
socialpoliticsofthevisible,apoliticswhichimposesonthedisabledthe
requirement"toseethemselvesaslivinginthemirageofbeingnormal"
(L. J. Davis, "Constructing Normalcy" 13, "Disability Studies" n. pag.).
Iwillattempttoaddressthisaspectofvisualuncertainty("mirage")abit
further and organize my thoughts around the idea of a spectral
disability. Beyond its lexical meaning "of, relating to, or suggesting a
specter: ghostly" ("Spectral" n. pag.), the term "spectral" has a number
of associations which, being of a materialist nature, are useful for the
present argument. My reflections on the spectral aspects of disability
have been especially inspired by Jean and John L. Comaroff's repeated
reflections on the spectral nature of capital and neoliberal capitalism.
Much of that goes back to Marx who, inCapital: Critique of Political
Economy, Volume I, wrote about the mystifications of capital and its
ability to abstract itself from the material social relations in which it is
embedded and, like the ghosts in superstitions, assume various shapes
and forms, "abounding in metaphysical subtleties and theological
niceties," and being everywhere and nowhere (46). Comaroff and
Comaroff apply this foundational Marxist concept to capital's most
recent configuration, neoliberalism, which in their view has perfected
thistendencytowardspectralizationbydealingnolongerinsolidgoods
but a whole system of spectral appearances such as securities and
derivatives whose very existence and functioning "depends for its
existence on 'confidence,' a chimera knowable, tautologically, only by
its effects" (19-20).^140 "Confidence" is a keyword here, but before I
addressthis notion,Ineedto pointto spectrality'shistoricalresonances,
especially the practice during the witch hunts of accepting as evidence
(^140) The notion of spectral capitalism has recently been getting increasing
attention, not only in the field of macroeconomics but also in cultural critique.
Cf. the collection of essays Dufresne, Todd, and Clara Sacchetti, eds.The
Economy as Cultural System: Theory, Capitalism, Crisis. London: Bloomsbury
Academic, 2012. Print.; and Dube, Saurabh, ed.Enchantments of Modernity:
Empire,Nation.NewYork:Routledge,2010.Print.,withachapteron"Spectral
Capital"(452-72).