Chapter 1
Practices of reading difference
In the US TV series OZ (1997–2002), about life in a high security prison in the US, Augustus Hill is the narrator who introduces us to characters, comments on story lines and expounds moral dilemmas. Augustus is a young black man who has a spinal injury and is a wheelchair user. Within the universe of this prison drama, his disability is used as an enabling device for Augustus: he can see events from a different perspective, make links, and act as a chorus for the viewers. Within the narrative economy of the series, Augustus’s wheelchair acts as a prison for his body – allowing his mind to be freer than the minds of his fellow inmates. Augustus’s disability in the prison is a narrative choice: Harold ...
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