Abstract

This essay traces a route through the development of a critical discourse on the cultural interpretation of disability focusing in particular on the dimension of engagement which underlies the research. Through the analysis of some key texts the history of disability studies is traced from its foundation in the context of the disabled associationism of the 1970s, to the definition of a Marxist theoretical approach with the belated rediscovery of Gramsci, and finally to the most recent post-modern developments oriented towards greater convergence with other fields of cultural research. In this way the essay hopes to provide Italian academe with an overview of a discipline already consolidated in the Anglo-Saxon world.