Blindsided

This paper examines sight loss, identity, uncertain borders and power, using postcolonial theory. The novel explored in this paper, Blindsided, follows a British-Egyptian ophthalmologist to Mali and back to the UK. She experiences sight loss, and a consequent shift from doctor to patient, from subject to object, which forces her to explore her identity issues. She becomes no longer the observer but the examined. This novel sits in an underexplored intersection between postcolonial theory, literature, disability theory and medical humanities. It offers a perspective on the shifts in power that occur within sight loss, within relationships; it offers this paradigm in order to examine how we may unlearn privilege, and explore becoming other. The critical paper continues this exploration, providing a unique analysis of how people with sight loss have written about the subject in academia, literature and creative non-fiction. It delves into the porous boundaries between these different types of writing, and demonstrates that writing about sight loss is a way that people who experience it can seize back the power that society takes from them, gain authority, and take control of their own narrative.