Making sense of bodies : normalizing power of models and metaphors in sciences

The chapter addresses one of the key notions that has been playing a crucial role in the way in which disability has been defined throughout centuries - the concept of ‘the norm.’ It lays bare the ways of constituting and sustaining normative categories in the arts and sciences by examining a selection of works of art that range from Rembrandt’s "The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp" (1632) to Jill Scott’s multimedia installation "Somabook" (2012). Accentuating the fact that science does not give direct, objective access to nature and highlighting the role of historical and cultural mediation in the processes of body analysis and representation in the arts and sciences, the chapter provides a valuable cultural and historical framework for questioning the idea of ‘the norm’ in Critical Disability Studies. Exposing the subjectivity and constructedness of ‘the norm,’ Sugiera’s text offers an inspiring starting point for further study at the crossroads of sciences, cultural studies, and disability studies, and an invitation to closely examine the factors involved in various, inevitably mediated, cultural, artistic, and scientific representations of both ‘normal’ and ‘abnormal’ forms of human embodiment. It thus paves the way for productive forms of exchange and collaboration between cds and other fields of academic research.