المستخلص: |
This study set out to explore the idea of alienation in relation to disability in its broad sense as a characteristic feature of the modern era. Alienation, as has been established, results from the failure to meet the norms and standards set by a certain society or norms and standards set by humanity. While society norms alienate the disabled and the unproductive, humanity standards strip the ruthless and pitiless of the defining human values, and thus, hold them as alienated. The study also delved into the dynamic of power relationship and the themes of exploitation, submission, interdependence, and enslavement and disability as portrayed in two twentieth century literary works, namely, Beckett's "Endgame", Shaw's "Pygmalion", with a brief comment on Kafka's "The Metamorphosis". Read together, these literary works almost provide a single vision of the extreme dejection and devaluation of the infirm, the invalid and the no longer- productive members of the society who are viewed as garbage worthy of the broomstick, the gutter, and dustbin.
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