Unfolding Lives Beyond Text and Screen: Disability Humanities in Me Before You

Abstract

This article analyses disability as represented in Jojo Moyes 2012 novel Me Before You and its 2016 film adaption in the context of the emergent field of Disability Humanities. Beyond the text and the screen, the study shows how literature and film shape our myths about the disabled body, love and desire and autonomy in different and yet transferable ways. All the inner turmoil, emotions and moral reasoning of Will Traynor are left open in the novel, but the film leans on emotional and visual aid that increase empathy but sometimes seem to overcompensate for the depth of his experience. By means of disability studies, narrative theory, and film analysis this article investigates how the narrative deals with problems of human dignity, assisted suicide, love and care. And while the interpretation does narrate a romance, it also suggests that film adaptations of Me Before You ultimately ask their audiences to wrestle with difficult moral quandaries and the societal underpinnings that make up a “good life.” They also illustrate just how quickly a disability can be translated into either a tragic or an inspiration. The paper contextualizes this work within the larger frame of Emerging Humanities, illustrating how English studies can contribute to critical questions of representation, ethics, and health. Disability Humanities in particular, offers a new voice for the field, a voice that cuts across media, challenging ableist assumptions, and forming the humanities as relevant, engaged and poetic in our time.