The Narrative Use of Disability in Tales of Love and Darkness and Sweet Mud

Mitchell and Snyder suggest a pattern of representation in which the disability is used to inaugurate narrative and provide motivation and backstory for character, obscuring the reality of disability, and usurping the signifying potential of disability. These narrative uses of disability point to deeper held cultural attitudes. Israel has recently passed legislation that reflects a move towards a rights based model. However, studies of representation Israeli media reveal that disability is still depicted in a restricted number of negative tropes. A narrative analysis of two major Israeli feature films, Tales of Love and Darkness and Sweet Mud, utilizing the tools suggested by Mitchell and Snyder, reveals that disability is used by this these films as a metaphor for social dysfunction.