The Included

Abstract

A culture of inclusion pervades Singapore, one where disabled bodies are marked and folded into life by the state and its associated agencies. The effect of this inclusion has been the production of a new figure of disability, or what I call the included. In the midst of this inclusion, the disabled-led production of And Suddenly I Disappear: The Singapore ‘d’ Monologues in May 2018 marks a key milestone. The article considers the deployment of disability within the production and how it resists hegemonic representations of disabled people in Singapore. Particular consideration is given to the production’s orientation toward the disabled subject and the following questions: How is disability mobilized with and against this climate of inclusion? How is the disabled body deployed to resist hegemonic and ableist constructs of disability within inclusion, where disabled bodies are included because they are regarded as productive subjects of the nation-state? What kinds of productive tensions exist between the included and the disabled subject?