DOI: https://doi.org/10.14710/humanika.v33i1.82636

Resistensi Perempuan Difabel dalam Hunchback Karya Ichikawa Saō: Perspektif Feminist Disability Studies

1Universitas Hasanuddin, Indonesia

2Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia

Received: 20 Feb 2026; Revised: 19 Apr 2026; Accepted: 24 Apr 2026; Published: 9 May 2026.
Open Access Copyright (c) 2026 Yunita El Risman, Fithyani Anwar, A. Achmad Fudail under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.

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Abstract

This article examines forms of resistance enacted by a disabled woman protagonist in Ichikawa Saō’s novel Hunchback (2023). The novel portrays a female character with congenital myopathy who lives in close relation to medical technology and institutional care. Employing a qualitative interpretive approach through close reading, this study draws on Rosemarie Garland-Thomson’s feminist disability theory to analyze how the disabled body is represented and negotiated within structures of power.The findings reveal three major forms of resistance: (1) resistance against the desexualization of disabled bodies through the assertion of sexual desire and embodied experience; (2) resistance against the stigma of unproductivity through narrative production and authorship; and (3) resistance against the politics of staring through the strategic use of digital technology as a medium of subject formation.The study argues that disability in the novel is not merely portrayed as a biological condition, but as a socially constructed category that can be contested through narrative articulation. This research contributes to contemporary Japanese literary studies by centering disability as a primary analytical lens and by expanding discussions of women’s resistance within frameworks of ableism and normate femininity.

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Keywords: disabled women; narrative resistance; ableism; feminist disability studies; Japanese literature

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