Disability & Futurity in Post-Apocalyptic Narratives

• The slideshow discusses disability, survival, and futurity in post-apocalyptic narratives, particularly through the lens of "The Girl with All the Gifts."

Warm-up Activity

• Respond to the prompt: In “The Girl with All the Gifts”, survival depends on the perspective of the characters, align with Ms. Justineau's or Dr. Caldwell's view if you were a survivor and explain why.
• Discuss your response with a partner and compare perspectives.
• Volunteers share their responses with the class.

Classroom Goals

• Analyze the intersection of disability and survival in "The Girl with All the Gifts" using Debbie Olson's arguments about disabled children in post-apocalyptic narratives.
• Apply Lee Edelman's theory of futurity to post-apocalyptic films, challenging assumptions that children always symbolize hope and continuity.
• Compare different portrayals of children in post-apocalyptic films and see if they challenge or reinforce dominant ideas about the future.
• Critically assess the role of containment and exclusion in deciding who is worth saving for post-apocalyptic survival.
• Engage in group discussions and analyze key films, debating how stories use (or reject) children as symbols of futurity.

Disability and Survival

• Olson argues that post-apocalyptic films erase disability or use it as a metaphor.
• In "The Girl with All the Gifts," the Hungries are represented as disabled bodies that are outside the norm of society.
• The hybrid children are treated as biological problems and not seen as people.
• Olson notes that the disabled child body is not the means to save human existence but marks the end of humanity.

Disability as Evolution

• Melanie is both a disabled body and an evolved one
• Melanie's existence challenges the old world, because it represents a future where the uninfected humans no longer dominate.
• Melanie chooses to spread the fungus instead of curing it to ensure the hybrid children inherit the Earth.
• Melanie straddles both the human and non-human, the past and the future, and the new species versus old species.

The Cure Narrative and Disability

• Post-apocalyptic films often frame disability as something that must be "fixed" for survival.
• The idea of a cure is ableist because it suggests that survival is only possible only when disability is eliminated.
• Dr. Caldwell seeks a cure from the hybrid children.
• Melanie however, rejects this "cure"
• "I Am Legend": The virus is treated as a disease, and not a new form of life to be reversed.
• “The Rain”: Survivors see infected people as beyond saving.

Rethinking Strength and Power

• Strength in most post-apocalyptic films is defined by physical ability, combat skills, and aggression.
• Intelligence, adaptability, and emotional complexity are all important for survival in "The Girl with All the Gifts."
• Melanie is physically small and locked up, but she outlives everyone.
• Ms. Justineau values empathy over violence and also survives.
• Dr. Caldwell, representing scientific authority, does not survive.
• “Mad Max: Fury Road”: Furiosa uses tactical thinking and leadership to become powerful.
• “A Quiet Place”: The daughter's deafness allows her to develop a unique strategy against the monsters and becomes a survival advantage.

The Politics of Containment

• The hybrid children are controlled, locked up, and experimented on.
• The military views the the hybrid children as dangerous, but Ms. Justineau sees them as children.
• Melanie ends human dominance and burns the fungal pods by refusing to be contained.

Lee Edelman

• Lee Edelman argues that society ties children to futurity, thinking they expect them to rebuild what was lost.
• Futurity refers to the expectation that the future is something that society invests in.
• It is tied to children, who are seen as the carriers of progress, values, and civilization.
• The Child represents the continuation of dominant ideology
• "The Girl with All the Gifts" does not restore the past, but ends it, therefore disrupting this idea.

Group Activity

• Break into groups of 5-6.
• Each group will pick “Children of Men”, “The Road”, “28 Days Later” or “Planet of the Apes”.
• Discuss how the film positions children (or their absence) in relation to the future, if the film reinforces or challenges futurity and if we should see the film's children as symbols of hope or as disruptors.
• Prepare a 2-minute group presentation summarizing conclusions.

Key Takeaways

• Post-apocalyptic films erase disability, but "The Girl with All the Gifts" makes it central.
• Melanie challenges the idea that the future belongs to "able" bodies.
• We expect children to continue our world, but Melanie creates a new one, according to Edelman.