Disability in Past Life Histories: Archival Facts and Literary Fiction from 19th-century Sweden (DISTORY)

Combining a rich set of archival sources from the 1800s with literary fiction from the time describing people with disabilities, this project brings greater depth to the understanding of their life in history.

While the focus is on Sweden, the questions, methods and results will interest international scholars in disability history, social history, cultural history and literature.

Constructing a collective biography including c. 400 individual life histories drawn from parish registers and stories about disability in realist fiction, the project makes disabled lives and perceptions of disability in the past become more visible than in previous research.

Running for three years, it brings together a team with different expertise in disability history, social history, cultural disability studies and statistics, mixing methods to fill in the collective biography proposed.

The results will challenge mainstream views linking disability with hardship, including historical studies that emphasize disability’s disadvantages for people’s health and participation in society, by highlighting diversity in their life and suggest how strategies and networks shaped it alongside disability type, gender and socio-economic origin.

While the project’s blended use of sources works to bridge the divide between quantitative and qualitative research, its findings from the past help promote the identity of disabled people living today.