Upton Sinclair

Emily Russell

Presents a graphic novel edition of the story that depicts the horrifying conditions of the Chicago stockyards and the meatpacking industry and a young immigrant's struggles in America.

The Jungle

Constant Heart

Liberal individualism, a foundational concept of American politics, assumes an essentially homogeneous population of independent citizens. When confronted with physical disability and the contradiction of seemingly unruly bodies, however, the public searches for a story that can make sense of the difference. The narrative that ensues makes "abnormality" an important part of the dialogue about what a genuine citizen is, though its role is concealed as an exception to the rule of individuality rather than a defining difference. Reading Embodied Citizenship brings disability to the forefront, illuminating its role in constituting what counts as U.S. citizenship. Drawing from major figures in American literature, including Mark Twain, Flannery O'Connor, Carson McCullers, and David Foster Wallace, as well as introducing texts from the emerging canon of disability studies, Emily Russell demonstrates the place of disability at the core of American ideals. The narratives prompted by the encounter between physical difference and the body politic require a new understanding of embodiment as a necessary conjunction of physical, textual, and social bodies. Russell examines literature to explore and unsettle long-held assumptions about American citizenship.

Disability, Narrative, and the Body Politic

Reading Embodied Citizenship

Follies and Vices

Removing an organ from one (typically dead) body and placing it in another living body challenges our most foundational ideas about boundaries between self and other, individual and social identity, life and death, health and illness. But despite these transgressions, organ transplant is a celebrated and relatively common procedure. Transplant Fictions brings together a diverse set of cultural representations to understand how we have overcome the profound ideological violations represented by organ exchange in order to reimagine the concept and practice as technological and moral victories. From the plots of horror stories and sci-fi novels to sentimental romances and feel-good media reports of stranger donation, this cultural study offers a nuanced portrait of the conceptual journey of organ exchange from strange and terrible to the “gift of life.”

A Cultural Study of Organ Exchange

Transplant Fictions

Aurian and Jin Koch are trying, very hard, to be peaceful. They're doing a terrible job. Owning a shiny new Inn in a boring Gold Road village might be Aurian's dream, but the world has other ideas. When Aurian and Jin Koch leave Morda Bonemaker's funeral procession to attempt a peaceful life, they underestimate how difficult their singular history of violence and mayhem will make getting along with the neighbors. Will their history follow them, even into retirement? For that matter--is Evinanjin Koch, veteran hero, capable of retirement? An Aurian and Jin novelette--NOT the second book in the Sundering Trilogy.

The Antidote

Aurian Koch, semi-professional innkeeper, has a pretty easy life. He drinks beer with the necromancers down the road, scrubs tabletops, swabs glasses, and robs bandits. In the company of his wife, the mysterious ex-soldier Jin Grewler, he's...well, maybe not respected. Maybe tolerated is the right word. Things change when Jin's past comes to call in the form of a Bonedancer, scourge of the Imperial South. Before they know it, Aurian and Jin are burning their inn and running for the woods to flee from the consequences of whatever it is Jin has done this time. But what has Jin done? As they flee, Aurian begins to realize there's more to the story--and to his wife--than simple crime. Their choices will affect not only their own fortunes, but those of the entire land.

Emily Russell

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