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Imagining Autism: Fiction and Stereotypes on the Spectrum
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 Freeman Loftis’s groundbreaking study examines 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 fictional characters (and an author or two) widely understood as autistic, ranging from Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes 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—these characters become protean symbols, stand-ins for the chaotic forces of inspiration, contagion, and disorder. They are also part of the imagined lives of the autistic, argues Loftis, sometimes for good, sometimes threatening to undermine self-identity and the activism of the autistic community.
208 pages, Hardcover
First published December 1, 2015
7 people are currently reading
364 people want to read
About the author
Sonya Freeman Loftis
12 books5 followersSonya Freeman Loftis is Professor of English at Morehouse College, where she specializes in Shakespeare and disability studies. She is the author of Shakespeare's Surrogates (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), Imagining Autism (Indiana University Press, 2015), and the co-editor of Shakespeare’s Hamlet in an Era of Textual Exhaustion (Routledge, 2017). Her work has appeared in Shakespeare Survey, The Disability Studies Reader, Disability Studies Quarterly, and Shakespeare Bulletin. She currently serves on the editorial board for Disability Studies Quarterly and Review of Disability Studies: An International Journal. Her work in disability studies received honorable mention for the Society for Disability Studies Irving K. Zola Award.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
December 18, 2017
Full disclosure: I am an autistic person who reviews autistic books on the Internet, so this is... my wheelhouse. Yeah.
This book does kind of the same thing that I like to do but in an academic style and in much greater depth. It's incisive and well-argued. It also comes from a place of being very well-informed about the autism self-advocacy movement and current issues in advocacy generally, as is addressed in the introduction - and as one would expect from an #ownvoices autistic literary critic, which the author is. Even though this is my wheelhouse, I learned things!
Furthermore, as the book states, it's the first work of academic literary criticism specifically devoted to discussing the role of autism in literature. (I believe Kathryn Allan's "Disability in Science Fiction" predates it and has an autism chapter, but that's one chapter, so.)
Where I had quibbles with the book, and where it went down to four stars instead of five for me, was mostly small things - so small that I'm not even sure I want to discuss them here. I think a lot of them come, not from any problem with the book per se, but from a difference in style. I am used to online reviews which recommend a book, or aspects of a book, as good or bad. Loftis is not shy about pointing out when things are stereotypical or connect to harmful narratives for autistic people, but her overall mission doesn't really focus on that in the way I would have expected; instead it is about tracing how the harmful narratives have evolved through different works, in a very literary-critic sort of way. This mostly was an issue for me at times when she talked about stereotypes, and I wanted to quibble about how realistic a stereotype was, or what we should do when some people in real life do fit the stereotype and others don't, or where to find literature that isn't so stereotypical - but those aren't the issues that Loftis is concerned with, and she may not even be using the word "stereotype" in the way I am used to. Again, not an objective problem with the book, just something that I had to adjust my expectations for.
If you are pro-neurodiversity and interested in literary criticism, then this is probably a very good book for you. I enjoyed it.
This book does kind of the same thing that I like to do but in an academic style and in much greater depth. It's incisive and well-argued. It also comes from a place of being very well-informed about the autism self-advocacy movement and current issues in advocacy generally, as is addressed in the introduction - and as one would expect from an #ownvoices autistic literary critic, which the author is. Even though this is my wheelhouse, I learned things!
Furthermore, as the book states, it's the first work of academic literary criticism specifically devoted to discussing the role of autism in literature. (I believe Kathryn Allan's "Disability in Science Fiction" predates it and has an autism chapter, but that's one chapter, so.)
Where I had quibbles with the book, and where it went down to four stars instead of five for me, was mostly small things - so small that I'm not even sure I want to discuss them here. I think a lot of them come, not from any problem with the book per se, but from a difference in style. I am used to online reviews which recommend a book, or aspects of a book, as good or bad. Loftis is not shy about pointing out when things are stereotypical or connect to harmful narratives for autistic people, but her overall mission doesn't really focus on that in the way I would have expected; instead it is about tracing how the harmful narratives have evolved through different works, in a very literary-critic sort of way. This mostly was an issue for me at times when she talked about stereotypes, and I wanted to quibble about how realistic a stereotype was, or what we should do when some people in real life do fit the stereotype and others don't, or where to find literature that isn't so stereotypical - but those aren't the issues that Loftis is concerned with, and she may not even be using the word "stereotype" in the way I am used to. Again, not an objective problem with the book, just something that I had to adjust my expectations for.
If you are pro-neurodiversity and interested in literary criticism, then this is probably a very good book for you. I enjoyed it.
March 28, 2017
The intro was fair and reads like a long blog post but with scholarly footnotes, but a lot of the author's biases seep through thus ending up with a somewhat muddle take for discovering the true nature of autism and for what the spectrum really entails.
I've been in search for a good book on Autism for awhile and keep coming up short. I skimmed the first chapter but it seems to me one could make the argument that Sherlock Holmes was just left brain or if you don't like that label, you could say he exercised his analytical capacities to the exclusion of his emotional IQ.
The post Tractatus Wittgenstein makes the point just because you have a label for something doesn't actually make one understand it. Look up ADD in DSM V and you'll see that everyone qualifies ("in the last six months have you had times when you found it hard to focus", okay I'm making that up, but it's close enough to being true) for ADD, but the label makes it seem like we understand what it is.
Anyways, enough of me rambling. I didn't finish this book. It was not what I was looking for, and I'm still searching for a good book on this topic.
I've been in search for a good book on Autism for awhile and keep coming up short. I skimmed the first chapter but it seems to me one could make the argument that Sherlock Holmes was just left brain or if you don't like that label, you could say he exercised his analytical capacities to the exclusion of his emotional IQ.
The post Tractatus Wittgenstein makes the point just because you have a label for something doesn't actually make one understand it. Look up ADD in DSM V and you'll see that everyone qualifies ("in the last six months have you had times when you found it hard to focus", okay I'm making that up, but it's close enough to being true) for ADD, but the label makes it seem like we understand what it is.
Anyways, enough of me rambling. I didn't finish this book. It was not what I was looking for, and I'm still searching for a good book on this topic.
October 24, 2015
I loved this book for the most part, but wish the author had included more positive representations of autism in literature instead of all the ones she found problematic. It just feels a bit unbalanced because of this otherwise it was a most excellent resource for my thesis.
March 14, 2018
It's been a long time since I've read such scholarly literary criticism and discourse, as my professional literature these days is usually bloggers and School Library Journal, so this was a refreshing brain exercise. The introduction was an excellent explanation of the controversy around language and labeling (and the different paradigms for seeing "disability,") and I appreciated that the author is on the spectrum. I recommend that anyone read that introduction piece, anyone with a real interest in disabilities studies without taking the class.
As for the literary critique, I used to love this stuff as a lit major, but I felt that this didn't help me come to new understanding other than how certain beloved texts of mine portrary autism stereotypically. I kept nodding my head, thinking, "Yes, yes, I see what you're saying. Yes, this is exactly what the text is doing and how it's portraying autism, and yes, that's exactly what I got out of it as a reader....and this is bad because...why, again?" I would have appreciated some commentary on some representations of autism in YA fiction that really satisfied Loftis with an explanation as to why.
For those of you who aren't reading this, here's some of what I learned (although it's much more enjoyable to read the whole book as it's literary analysis at its finest): Autism is portrayed as causing people on the spectrum to be too intellectual without the ability to relate to people (intellect vs. emotion), as being almost animalistic with euthanasia seeming acceptable (i.e. Of Mice and Men), as a destroyer of families, as a childlike condition, or as only acceptable when the character becomes more neurotypical. Yes. There were some tidbits of fascinating information like the reception and discussion of Of Mice and Men, the biographical information about the writer of the Glass Menagerie, and more.
Overall, an interesting read, but nothing that really amazed me or taught me something new that I will carry into my selection policies, my own literary experience, or my own understanding of autism (which is what I was looking for).
As for the literary critique, I used to love this stuff as a lit major, but I felt that this didn't help me come to new understanding other than how certain beloved texts of mine portrary autism stereotypically. I kept nodding my head, thinking, "Yes, yes, I see what you're saying. Yes, this is exactly what the text is doing and how it's portraying autism, and yes, that's exactly what I got out of it as a reader....and this is bad because...why, again?" I would have appreciated some commentary on some representations of autism in YA fiction that really satisfied Loftis with an explanation as to why.
For those of you who aren't reading this, here's some of what I learned (although it's much more enjoyable to read the whole book as it's literary analysis at its finest): Autism is portrayed as causing people on the spectrum to be too intellectual without the ability to relate to people (intellect vs. emotion), as being almost animalistic with euthanasia seeming acceptable (i.e. Of Mice and Men), as a destroyer of families, as a childlike condition, or as only acceptable when the character becomes more neurotypical. Yes. There were some tidbits of fascinating information like the reception and discussion of Of Mice and Men, the biographical information about the writer of the Glass Menagerie, and more.
Overall, an interesting read, but nothing that really amazed me or taught me something new that I will carry into my selection policies, my own literary experience, or my own understanding of autism (which is what I was looking for).
March 29, 2022
What next??? People I have seen on the bus who might be on the spectrum??? With so much unexplained areas of autism still waiting to be written about it is sad to see so many wasted pages pointlessly devoted to fictional characters. The only area of self help is the writers bank balance.
February 9, 2026
A nice examination of several examples from extant literature, but limited on more direct advice on how to imagine autism well.
3.5/5 Stars rounded up
3.5/5 Stars rounded up
October 8, 2024
I found this book to be a great look into autistic coded literary character. It's easy to follow and easy to understand.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews