ANGER AND AFFABILITY - THE RISE AND REPRESENTATION OF A REPERTORY OF SELF-PRESENTATION SKILLS IN A WORLD-WAR-II DISABLED VETERAN

People with visible physical disabilities must learn to manage a singu lar form of oppression-unwanted attention from strangers in the form, for example, of being stared at and being asked prying questions. Whil e the management of oppressive attention has been extensively describe d and analyzed in recent ethnographical and biographical literature on disability, historians have taken little interest in the lived experi ence of people with disabilities. This essay analyzes the development of these management skills in the case of a disabled World War II vete ran, Harold Russell, a bilateral hand amputee, and contrasts Russell's personal rehabilitation experience with that of the disabled characte r Russell played in the popular post-war feature film, The Best Years of Our Lives (1946). Russell's acquisition of these management skills took place in a cultural and political context that placed an emphasis on repression of bitterness and anger. The essay seeks to explain how the opportunity to play the fictional disabled character in the movie functioned for Russell as an outlet for emotions that disabled vetera ns were discouraged from displaying in public.