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Author Loftis, Sonya Freeman, 1983-

Title Imagining autism : fiction and stereotypes on the spectrum / Sonya Freeman Loftis
Published Bloomington : Indiana University Press, 2015
©2015

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Description 1 online resource
Contents The autistic detective: Sherlock Holmes and his legacy -- The autistic savant: Pygmalion, Saint Joan, and the neurodiversity movement -- The autistic victim: Of mice and men and Flowers for Algernon -- The autistic gothic: To kill a mockingbird, The glass menagerie, and The sound and the fury -- The autistic child narrator: Extremely loud and incredibly close and The curious incident of the dog in the night-time -- The autistic label: diagnosing (and undiagnosing) The girl with the dragon tattoo -- Afterword
Summary "A disorder that is only just beginning to find a place in disability studies and activism, autism remains in large part a mystery, giving rise to both fear and fascination. Sonya Loftis's groundbreaking study turns to literary representations of autism or autistic behavior to discover what impact they have had on cultural stereotypes, autistic culture, and the identity politics of autism. Imagining Autism looks at literary characters (and an author or two) widely understood as autistic, ranging from Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, Shaw's St. Joan, Steinbeck's Lennie Small, and Harper Lee's Boo Radley to Mark Haddon's boy detective Christopher Boone and Steig Larsson's Lisbeth Salander. The silent figure trapped inside himself, the savant made famous by his other-worldly intellect, the brilliant detective linked to the criminal mastermind by their common neurology--in these works characters on the spectrum become protean symbols, stand-ins for the chaotic forces of inspiration, contagion, and disorder. These powerful fictional depictions, Loftis argues, are also part of the imagined lives of the autistic, sometimes for good, sometimes threatening to undermine self-identity and the activism of the autistic community"-- Provided by publisher
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes English
Print version record
Subject Stereotypes (Social psychology)
English drama -- 20th century -- History and criticism
American drama -- 20th century -- History and criticism
American fiction -- History and criticism
English fiction -- History and criticism
Identity (Psychology) in literature.
Autistic people in literature.
Medicine in literature.
Autistic Disorder
Medicine in Literature
Autism Spectrum Disorder
Stereotyping
LITERARY CRITICISM -- European -- English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh.
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- People with Disabilities.
Medicine in literature
American drama
American fiction
Autistic people in literature
English drama
English fiction
Identity (Psychology) in literature
Stereotypes (Social psychology)
Amerikansk litteratur -- historia.
Engelsk litteratur -- historia.
Autism i litteraturen.
Identitet (psykologi) i litteraturen.
Genre/Form Criticism, interpretation, etc.
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9780253018137
0253018137