Searching Through the Study of Disability in the Literary Field: A Bibliometric Analysis

Disability maintains its position as one of the most significant social issues, which fortunately resulted in the inauguration of a growing multidisciplinary field in the academic arena that would study the concept in all its multi-dimensional aspects. Among these disciplines, literature has been increasingly taking its part too, which has led to a continuously growing body of works. Although it can be observed that the studies on disability in the literary field have increased over time, reviewing the related literature on literary disability studies reveals that research investigating the quantity and development of disability studies in literature is almost non-existent. This lack demonstrates that to examine the progression and emerging trends of disability studies in literature is a necessity since interpreting them as a whole and putting forward a concrete dataset would form a basis for further studies and serve to the development of the field. Thereby, this study aims to contribute to the field by conducting a bibliometric analysis of 398 English-language articles indexed in the Web of Science database’s category of literature published between 2000 and 2025 through the employment of both the performance analysis and scientific mapping techniques. The originality of the article lies not only in its mapping of the structure and development of the field with the purpose of offering reliable guidance for future scholars but also in its contribution to the visibility of disability within the literary domain.