Emerging from Emergence: Toward a Rethinking of the Recovery Story in Nine Contemporary Nonfiction Autism Narratives
Document Type
Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
10.18061/dsq.v29i2.924
Journal Title
Disability Studies Quarterly
Publication Date
2009
Abstract
In this paper I trace a welcome new trajectory within one of the fastest-growing subsets of illness/disability narrative over the last three decades— book-length accounts of living with autism spectrum disorders. My thesis is that one may observe a marked shift in how many of these writers now position themselves relative to the established pattern for such stories. According to the earlier model, the narrative moves inevitably toward the autistic individual’s recovery, or at least emergence, from his/her disability. More recently, most writers (from both first- and third-person points of view) have been rethinking the merits of such a teleology, often opting instead to insist upon their autism spectrum diagnoses as a fundamental aspect of their self-concept rather than as a hindrance to a more normal life and full self-realization.
Publisher Statement
Disability Studies Quarterly is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license, to allow for certain types of reuse without permission. By submitting this agreement, the author agrees to apply a CC BY-NC-ND license to the Submission upon publication.
Recommended Citation
Foss, Chris. “Emerging from Emergence: Toward a Rethinking of the Recovery Story in Nine Contemporary Nonfiction Autism Narratives.” Disability Studies Quarterly 29, no. 2 (2009). https://doi.org/10.18061/dsq.v29i2.924.