The evoking of a sense of wonder in disability adjacent fiction has not been studied extensively despite it being a common thematic element. Some scholars, such as Marguerite La Caze, note that wonder can demonstrate an openness to seeking understanding of the other while other scholars, such as Marion Young, write that wonder is inherently dangerous in literature as it can lead to othering and exoticization. 

Wonder and Disability in Fiction

Disability is commonly employed in science fiction for either plot movement or for affect. Frequently it is used as a tool to evoke surprise or wonder in readers such as in Neil Stephenson's novel Snow Crash in which the character Ng uses a very technologically advanced wheelchair built out of an airport fire truck to survive.

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Cheyne writes that genre fiction is primarily affective, building off of the same theories employed by Berlant. By their estimation, genre fiction (science fiction, horror, fantasy, etc.) functions with the assumption that the reader will experience specific emotions or reactions as embodiments of those emotions with narrative or thematic adjustments that are negligible in the ultimate face of the emotive experience itself. Similarly, Warhol said that overly evocative contemporary media, such as soap operas, are technologies of affect. For this reason, disability might commonly be employed for the ease with which it evokes an emotional response. 

Genre Fiction and Affect with Regard to Disability

Cheyne, R. (2019). Disability, Literature, Genre: Representation and Affect in Contemporary Fiction. Liverpool University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvsn3pp7

Disability, Literature, Genre: Representation and Affect in Contemporary Fiction

Since genre fiction is already affective and often follows a particular trajectory outside of the norm in our current time and place, it allows for a more apt critique of social norms and perceptions of the current period and therefore is a convenient vehicle for commentary on certain social justice topics associated with disability studies. 

Social Commentary and Genre Fiction

Scholar Ria Cheyne notes that a shift has occurred in how disabled characters or disabled literary texts are analyzed in the contemporary period. In earlier periods, the primary consideration was how the disabled characters or text in question made the reader feel. In the contemporary period, shifting attitudes around otherness, disability, illness, etc. have now sparked a second element of consideration. This second element is that of meta-feelings or meta-emotions. That is, how we feel about our initial feelings towards a certain representation of a disability in a text. 

Genre Fiction, Disability, and Meta-Feelings

Disability is often employed in horror pieces as something to be feared and the monster, murderer, or other type of antagonist in a horror piece is often disabled. Cheyne identifies five dominate sensations one might expect to be conjured about in a horror piece: uneasiness, vulnerability, anxiety, repulsion, and revulsion. These are all elements synonymous with the word "horror" itself which encapsulates the presumed affect of work within the genre.

Disability and Horror

Crime fiction has a trajectory in which suspense and curiosity are raised by a mystery or problem and resolved by the close of the work. Often, the closure or solution is all the more satisfying when the mystery is more profound or the sense of intrigue raised to greater heights. Since mystery or suspense must be raised intensely, disability often plays a part in creating more mystery, suspense, or red herrings. In this way, it is employed more as a tool.

Disability and Crime Fiction

Disability in Science Fiction Literature

As fantasy fiction is often crafted with the aim of encountering or witnessing the amazing, wonderful, or magical, often times works in the fantasy genre will focus on the character transforming, gaining some power, changing fate, etc. Unfortunately, this may often include an ableist narrative in which the protagonist or another character is magically healed of a particular disability by the close of the work, though there are some deviations from this.

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