The Image Of The Blind People In The Fiction

Focus: School Years

Topic: Research

Vytautas Gudonis

Ph.D., Professor

Department of Special Education Studies

Siauliai University

Visinskio,25

5400 Siauliai

Lithuania

kaff@cr.su.lt

The influence of fiction on formation or reinforcement of social stereotypes is supported by our investigation.  In 1989 the survey of opinions of 263 mainstream secondary school leavers from all regions of Lithuania was conducted.  Our questionnaire was called "The Blind among the Sighted".  The results of the questionnaire show that for 135 /51,33%/ the main source of information about the blind was fiction and you can feel Korolenko's darkness and nostalgia for light on the part of the blind: " The blind is a condemned person who cannot see light and will never be able to.  His life is darkness...” "It is the most unhappy person to whom all the world seems blacks." This stereotype of darkness and longing for light is passed on not only ordinary readers but also on some painters illustrating V.Korolenko's books. One of the last books can serve as a perfect example to illustrate this. “Raduga” publishers published it in English in 1987, where Maknov made a few illustrations dealing with the blind Piotr against the black background.  By doing this he on the one hand illustrated the protagonist's blindness in a very primitive way, "on the other - he reinforced the stereotype of "darkness that constantly crushes the blind".

The adequate attitude of society towards people with different disabilities helps the latter to realize their potential better and to integrate into society more successfully. Some authors suggest that famous blind people created a positive attitude of society towards the blind. We believe that a positive attitude depends not so much on bright individuals, as on the level of democracy and humanism of a society in different periods of historical development.  In order to support our hypothesis we compiled a list of 212 famous blind people who lived in different epochs and in different countries.

We divided these people into groups according to their profession. Almost one third of them (31.6%) were connected with music, 77 (26.89%) of them were musicians who played the organ, piano or violin; 24(11.32%) were famous composers, 6(2.83) were singers, the same number were professors of music. Thus we can assume that music was the most accessible profession for the blind, probably because the majority of people think that the blind have a natural talent for music.

The second group consisted of writers (42 people), 28 of them being poets and 14 prose authors.

The third group of 17 people consisted of teachers. The fourth were other professions.

From ancient times only two names of famous blind people have reached us. One of them is a poet of Ancient Greece, Homer, who lived in the 8th c. B.C. and who wrote the famous epic poems “Iliad” and “Odyssey”. The other is a Roman politician Appius Claudius Cek, who lived in the year 312 B.C. and under whose leadership Rome built its infrastructure, such as the urban water-supply system (Aqua Appia) which is still functioning, and Via Appia, a strategically important cobble -stone road connecting Rome with the South of the country.

Some time later the name of a famous Greek philosopher, Didim of Alexandrie (308-395), entered history. He lost his vision at the age of 5 and learned the alphabet by using letters carved from wood.  He is famous for a number of works in law and philosophy (5,14).

After Dadim of Alexandrie no names of the famous blind can be found for almost 500 years, except that of the founder of Tadjik Persian farsi poetry, Rudaki Abu Abdalach Djafar (around 860-914), who was blinded in adult life.

The epoch of the middle Ages, which ignored ancient culture, developed in a primitive way. Human dignity was constantly humiliated, and man’s weakness emphasized. The influence of religion did not create favorable conditions for the development of the potential of the visually impaired and the blind.

It was only in the Renaissance that cultural and ideological development of European countries allowed the blind to realize better possibilities. The Renaissance, which started in Italy in the 14th c., is inseparable from the names of Dante and Giotto, whose works express a firm belief in the great   opportunities of man, his will and wisdom. The dominance of values like these created the conditions for fully realizing the talents of the blind. In 16th c. Italy, a famous blind organist, composer and poet, Francesco Landino (1325-1397) appears on the horizon.  His works in dialectology, philosophy and astrology show the scope of his interests, deep knowledge and excellent erudition.  With the spread of Renaissance ideas some famous blind appear in other European countries as well.

The Renaissance, based on the ideas of humanism, stimulated the development of new ideas, while the progressive bourgeois class in its struggle against feudalism created the preconditions for changes in the status of the blind in society.

In the 15th c., the names of writer Francesco Bell, organist and composer Conrad Paumen (1409-1473), philosopher Nikazija (1440-1492) are famous.

Between the 15th and 16th centuries we find the names of Vitas Stvos (1447-1533), who became blind at a mature age, and composer and organist Arnold Slik (1455-1525). From the 16th c. knowledge about a famous physician Jacob Sekija (1511-1587) and three Spanish composers, who lived almost at the same time, Miguel Fejenlian (1500-?), Anthony Kobesson (1510-1566) and Francisco Salina (1513-1590) reach us.

In the 18th c. a number of noteworthy personalities are worth mentioning. These are professor of Mathematics in Cambridge University Nicholas Saundersen (1682-1739), sponsored by the famous physicist Isaac Newton; a theologician Thom Blacklock (1721-?); writers Conrad Theofilius Pfefel (1739-1773) and Edward Rashton (1775-?); a whole range of excellent musicians, such as Christian Jacob (1696-1750), Johan Strelin (1703-?), D.Stendi (1713-1786), Porhof (1726, -?), Mariana Kirchhesner (1770-1808). The blind Austrian   pianist Maria Tereza Fon Paradiz (1759-1824) was especially famous for her talent and performed in most European countries. Mozart dedicated a Piano and Orchestra Concert to her.

Of great importance for the recognition of the abilities of the blind were the works of the 17-18th c. philosophers and writers J.J.Rousseau, F.Voltaire, S.Montesquieu, D.Diderot and other progressive people of the period, when much emphasis was placed on questions of education of the emerging generation. In 1746, D.Diderot organized the publishing of the first encyclopedia.  This was one of the most important events in the history of the popular science in the 18th c. In the chapter “The Blind Person”, D.Diderot reveals his rational evaluation on the cognition processes of the blind, points society’s attention to the legal rights of the blind, and notes their unlimited abilities in the sphere of humanities. That is why it was not by accident that the first school for the blind in Europe was opened in France in 1784. The rise of the wave of the talented blind, which exhibited a clear tendency of growth up to the 20th c., can be explained by the spread of the ideas of humanism. We found 10(4.27%) famous blind people in the 18th c., 49 (23.12%) between the 18th and 19th centuries, 50 (23.59%) in the 19th c., and 73(34.44%) between the 19th and 20th c.

Thus, we can now give an answer to the question why famous blind personalities rose or failed to rise in different periods of history.  The poem of Homer’s was stimulated by deep democratic and humanistic traditions of Greek culture. These same traditions, influenced by the ideas of the Renaissance, caused the re-appraisal of values, which in turn changed the social status of the blind in the society. Favorable conditions were created to develop a well-rounded personality and to realize the full potential of the blind. The recognition of the blind person as a full-fledged personality by his/her society manifests itself in European states passing laws on the compulsory education of the blind within the framework of mainstream school curricula. Even without such laws, blind children were educated anyway.

The results of our research show that the best opportunities for the development of the talents of the blind can be provided by democratic and humanistic social conditions, and not vice versa, when famous blind individuals help to create favorable attitudes of the society towards the visually impaired.  Separate cases of the rise of the famous blind in different periods of history were considered miracles, and this phenomenon did not extend to the rest of the blind as a social group of a society.