Abstract
To open the book, we introduce critical trauma studies and critical disability studies to argue that it is time these two theoretical approaches entered into a productive conversation. The Mad Max series of films traversing a period of almost 40 years is the ideal text to prompt such a discussion. The character Max Rockatansky transitioned from able-bodied masculinity in the first film to a limping, maddened road warrior in The Road Warrior and, by Fury Road, to a man haunted by guilt and hallucinations, often presenting as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) but rediscovering himself and his humanity. The origins and intentions of both critical trauma and critical disability studies are outlined to examine the sites of divergence and intersection. Focusing on a humanities approach to both trauma and disability, this chapter highlights productive areas of intersection related to aesthetics, metaphor, embodiment and social-cultural critique.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Ball, K. (2000). Introduction: Trauma and its institutional destinies. Cultural Critique, 46(46), 1–44. https://doi.org/10.2307/1354407
Beilby, P., & Murray, S. (1979). Production report: Mad Max. Cinema Papers, 21, 369.
Berger, J. (2004). Trauma without disability, disability without trauma: A disciplinary divide. JAC, 24(3), 563–582.
Casper, M. J., & Morrison, D. R. (2012). Intersections of disability studies and critical trauma studies: A provocation. Disability Studies Quarterly, 32(2). https://doi.org/10.18061/dsq.v32i2.3189
Casper, M. J., & Wertheimer, E. (Eds.). (2016). Critical trauma studies: Understanding violence, conflict and memory in everyday life. New York, NY: New York University Press.
Davidson, M. (2016). Cripping consensus: Disability studies at the intersection. American Literary History, 28(2), 433–453.
Dolmage, J. (2014). Disability rhetoric (1st ed.). Syracuse: Syracuse University Press.
Donaldson, E. J., & Prendergast, C. (2011). Introduction: Disability and emotion: “There’s no crying in disability studies!”. Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies, 5(2), 129–135. https://doi.org/10.3828/jlcds.2011.11
Douglas, J. R. (2017). Great directors: George Miler. Senses of Cinema, 83. Retrieved from http://sensesofcinema.com/2017/great-directors/george-miller/#fn-30702-30702
Ellis, K. (2015). Disability and popular culture: Focusing passion, creating community and expressing defiance. Surrey, UK: Ashgate.
Kafer, A. (2013). Feminist, queer, crip. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
Kafer, A. (2016). Un/safe disclosures: Scenes of disability and trauma. Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies, 10(1), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.3828/jlcds.2016.1
Longmore, P. (1987). Screening stereotypes: Images of disabled people in television and motion pictures. In A. Gartner & T. Joe (Eds.), Images of the disabled, disabling images (pp. 65–78). New York, NY: Praeger.
Mathews, S. (1984). 35mm dreams. Ringwood, Vic: Penguin.
McCarthy-Jones, S., & Longden, E. (2015). Auditory verbal hallucinations in schizophrenia and post-traumatic stress disorder: Common phenomenology, common cause, common interventions? Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 1071. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01071
Norden, M. (1994). The cinema of isolation: A history of physical disability in the movies. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.
Peary, D. (1984). Directing Mad Max and the Road Warrior: An interview with George Miller. In D. Peary (Ed.), OMNI’s screen flights/screen fantasies (pp. 279–286). New York, NY: Dolphin.
Siebers, T. (2008). Disability theory. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.
Siebers, T. (2010). Disability aesthetics. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.
Steel, C. (2015). Hallucinations as a trauma-based memory: Implications for psychological interventions. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 1262. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01262
Stout, A., & Schwartz, A. (2014). It’ll grow organically and naturally: The reciprocal relationship between student groups and disability studies on college campuses. Disability Studies Quarterly, 34(2). https://doi.org/10.18061/dsq.v34i2
Torrell, M. R. (2016). Interactions: Disability, trauma, and the autobiography. Life Writing, 13(1), 87–103. https://doi.org/10.1080/14484528.2016.1129572
Waters, F., & Fernyhough, C. (2017). Hallucinations: A systematic review of points of similarity and difference across diagnostic classes. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 43(1), 32–43. https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbw132
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Broderick, M., Ellis, K. (2019). Introduction. In: Trauma and Disability in Mad Max. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19439-0_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19439-0_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Pivot, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-19438-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-19439-0
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)