"Autism, a neuro-developmental disability, has received wide but often sensationalistic treatment in the popular media. A great deal of clinical and medical research has been devoted to autism, but the traditional humanities disciplines and the new field of Disability Studies have yet to explore it. This volume, the first scholarly book on autism in the humanities, brings scholars from several disciplines together with adults on the autism spectrum to investigate the diverse ways that autism has been represented in novels, poems, autobiographies, films, and clinical discourses, and to explore the connections and demarcations between autistic and ""neurotypical"" creativity. Using an empathetic scholarship that unites professional rigor with experiential knowledge derived from the contributors’ lives with or as autistic people, the essays address such questions as: In what novel forms does autistic creativity appear, and what unusual strengths does it possess? How do autistic representations--whether by or about autistic people--revise conventional ideas of cognition, creativity, language, (dis)ability and sociability? This timely and important collection breaks new ground in literary and film criticism, aesthetics, psychology, and Disability Studies."
Edited by:
Mark Osteen (Loyola College USA)
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 229mm,
Width: 152mm,
Spine: 26mm
Weight: 657g
ISBN: 9780415956444
ISBN 10: 0415956447
Series: Routledge Research in Cultural and Media Studies
Pages: 322
Publication Date: 27 November 2007
Audience:
College/higher education
,
General/trade
,
Primary
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Autism and Representation: A Comprehensive Introduction Mark Osteen I. Clinical Constructions 1. No Search, No Subject? Autism and the American Conversion Narrative James T. Fisher 2. Bruno Bettelheim, Autism, and the Rhetoric of Scientific Authority Katherine DeMaria Severson, James Arnt Aune, and Denise Jodlowski 3. Constructing Autism: A Brief Genealogy Majia Holmer Nadesan II. Autistry 4. Autism and Modernism: A Genealogical Exploration Patrick McDonagh 5. Autism and the Imagination Bruce Mills 6. Fractioned Idiom: Poetry and the Language of Autism Kristina Chew 7. Imagination and Awareness of Self in Autistic Spectrum Poets Ilona Roth 8. Human, but More So: What the Autistic Brain Tells Us about the Process of Narrative Matthew K. Belmonte III. Autist Biography 9. Crossing Over: Writing the Autistic Memoir Debra Cumberland 10. (M)Othering and Autism: Maternal Rhetorics of Self-Revision Sheryl Stevenson 11. Urinetown: A Chronicle of the Potty Wars Mark Osteen IV. Popular Representations 12. Recognizing Jake: Contending with Formulaic and Spectacularized Representations of Autism in Film Anthony D. Baker 13. Hollywood and the Fascination of Autism Stuart Murray 14. Film as a Vehicle for Raising Consciousness among Autistic Peers Phil Schwarz 15. Alterity and Autism: Mark Haddon’s Curious Incident in the Neurological Spectrum James Berger 425 16. Mark Haddon’s Popularity and Other Curious Incidents in My Life as an Autistic Gyasi Burks-Abbott Conclusion: Toward an Empathetic Scholarship Mark Osteen Contributors Index
Mark Osteen is Professor of English and Director of Film Studies at Loyola College in Maryland.
Reviews for Autism and Representation
Osteen focuses on contemporary writing, offering astute and sensitive appraisals of a wide range of novels, parental accounts and autobiographies. -- Dr Michael Fitzpatrick, Spiked This book is an excellent resource for any scholar interested in disability studies and autism. It brings theory to bear on what may be called a cognitive disability, places the diagnosis of autism in a historical and cultural context, and addresses issues of representation (by self and other). The essays demonstrate, in their entirety, how wide the spectrum of what is being called autism is and alert us to the individuality of autistics. NYU Literature, Medicine and Arts Database
