Academic literature on the topic 'Autism, fiction'

Increased disability awareness in the 21st century spurred a resurgence in autism popular fiction. Many autism fiction have emerged as International best sellers and have discussed Asperger’s syndrome (high functioning autism). This paper analyses how contemporary fiction has gleaned the Asperger from the autism spectrum and its subsequent representational politics. The signification of autism as narrative prosthesis forms the focus of this paper as it analyses and explores how the condition of autism has been re-presented in popular autism fiction. The study looks at the term ‘popular fiction’ as indicative of works that have had a wide readership, works that have evolved as best sellers and predominantly works that have been shelved as ‘popular fiction’. Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (2003), Jodi Picoult’s House Rules (2010) and Steig Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2008) are the works under consideration here.

Background & aims Anecdotal evidence suggests that individuals with autism spectrum disorder prefer non-fiction books over fiction books. The current study was the first to investigate parent-reports of children with autism spectrum disorder’s fiction and non-fiction book preferences and whether these relate to individual differences in social communication, oral language, and/or reading abilities. Method Children (ages 8–14 years, M = 10.89, SD = 1.17) with autism spectrum disorder diagnoses ( n = 19) and typically developing peers ( n = 21) participated. Children completed standardized measures of social communication, oral language, and reading abilities. Parents reported children’s current favorite book, and from these responses, we coded children’s fiction versus non-fiction book preferences. Main contribution Contrary to anecdotal evidence, children with autism spectrum disorder preferred fiction similar to their typically developing peers. Fiction versus non-fiction book preference was significantly related to social communication abilities across both groups. Children’s oral language and reading abilities were related, as expected, but the evidence for a relationship between social communication and reading comprehension was mixed. Conclusions This study provides preliminary evidence supporting the association of social communication in fiction versus non-fiction book preference, which may be related to children’s comprehension and support the theoretical role of social communication knowledge in narrative/fiction. Implications It should not be assumed that all children with autism spectrum disorder prefer expository/non-fiction or do not read narrative/fiction. Children who prefer non-fiction may need additional social communication knowledge support to improve their understanding of narrative fiction.

SummaryMany memorable characters in Western culture could be viewed as having features of autism or Asperger syndrome. In spite of the familiarity of autistic stereotypes such as Star Trek‘s Mr Spock, more completely described characters with autism are still unusual. In recent years there has been a growing interest in autism, mirrored by an increase in depictions of autism in popular works of fiction and autobiography. In this article I will outline the issues that have preoccupied writers and the techniques they have used to demonstrate autistic difference. Some writers have illuminated aspects of the autistic triad of social impairment, abnormalities of language and need for sameness. Other writers have opened our eyes to the autistic world view in its strangeness and richness. Still more have started to examine prejudice, disability rights and the implications of an international autism community. As in other areas of mental health, literature can help inform, entertain and question our attitudes and values.

Autism spectrum disorder refers to syndromes of varying severity, typified by impaired social interactions, communicative delays and restricted, repetitive behaviours and interests. The prevalence of autism spectrum disorders has been on the rise, while the etiology remains unclear and most likely multifactorial. There have been several reports of a link between autism and chronic gastrointestinal symptoms. Endoscopy trials have demonstrated a higher prevalence of nonspecific colitis, lymphoid hyperplasia and focally enhanced gastritis compared with controls. Postulated mechanisms include aberrant immune responses to some dietary proteins, abnormal intestinal permeability and unfavourable gut microflora. Two autism spectrum disorder patients with chronic intestinal symptoms and abnormal endoscopic findings are described, followed by a review of this controversial topic.

Background and aims Children’s early interactions with books are important for fostering development of oral language and emergent literacy skills. It is not known whether children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder show different preferences for text types in the home environment prior to school entry. The current study aimed to: (i) investigate parent-reports of the favourite books of their children with autism spectrum disorder compared to typically developing children and (ii) identify whether there are differences in the reasons why books were preferred across the two groups. Methods Participants included children (aged 26–70 months) with autism spectrum disorder ( n = 41) and typically developing peers ( n = 164). Parent-reports of their child’s current favourite book/s were coded as fiction versus non-fiction and also category type. Parents also reported why the book was considered a favourite and this was coded. Results There were no differences between groups for fiction versus non-fiction, with both groups preferring fiction (>95% of responses). A strong category preference for animal topics across both groups was present. Significant group differences were found when asked to select specific reasons for favourite book preferences. Conclusions This study provides preliminary evidence of similarities between preschool children with autism spectrum disorder and typically developing peers’ preferences for fiction books during the early years. Implications It should not be assumed that children with autism spectrum disorder have different preferences for book types compared to typically developing children in the early years of development. Providing preschoolers with a range of book types during the preschool years will help to facilitate early language and emergent literacy skills.

The article examines the content of six literary works about people with autism spectrum disorders. As cri¬teria for comparison the following things are selected: the genre in which the book is written, the presence of specialized terminology, the narrator of the story, the subjects of relationships, the gender and age of the main character, the description of the symptoms of autism and the nature of that description, the dynamics of the state and the climax of the literary work. The conclusion is drawn that the works of fiction on autism are aimed at informing the society of the problem, improving tolerance towards people with autism and supporting all those who are personally affected by autism.

This article discusses depiction of autism in science fiction based on three recent American novels written by autistic authors: Ada Hoffman’s The Outside (2019), Kaia Sønderby’s Failure to Communicate (2017), and Selene dePackh’s Troubleshooting (2018). The novels are discussed in the context of debates about diversity in science fiction, depiction of disability in the genre, and disability and autism studies, particularly in reference to concepts such as authorship, self-expression, and rationality. This is followed by an in-depth analysis of the use of utopian and dystopian impulses in science fiction and tropes such as first contact as well as the specificity of autistic perspectives, particularly in Hoffman’s The Outside. The texts propose visions of futures that include disability, specifically autism, and use the narratives of alien encounters to reflect on potential benefits of neurodivergent forms of communication and perception of the world. The article argues that the novels employ science fiction tropes to engage ideas about neurodiversity and cross-cultural communication, contributing both to inclusion of marginalized communities in science fiction and to an expansion of the genre’s repertoire of cultural representations of disability.

This dissertation investigates autism as a form of disability in the literary and filmic worlds. It closely examines the narrative and representation of autism in two popular fictions, Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time and Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. I propose to employ a postmodern framework in reading Haddon’s and Foer’s works, and argue the texts manifest the influence of postmodernism in contemporary writings through exhibiting inter-disciplinary knowledge and transcending the boundary between textual and visual narrative. This dissertation demonstrates how the two novels, by constructing the imagined autistic narrators, and giving them the narrative voice, offer neurotypical readers new perspectives to perceive an alienated world in autistic lens, such that the autistic narrative contributes to a distinct reading experience. The two chosen novels are significant texts in constructing the popular perception about autism in view of their worldwide popularities. This dissertation investigates how the autistic subject is being constantly imagined, represented, misrepresented and fantasized as otherness in the two fictions, by drawing comparisons with the Hollywood cinema. I find that the characterization and plot formulation in the two novels largely conform to and further reinforce the conventional, stereotypical and monolithic representations of autism in the popular culture, in which people with autism are either victimized as tragic characters, or in contrast, spectacularized and romanticized as extraordinary savants. Through a critical review of autism in a broad cultural discourse, this dissertation further illustrates how autism emerges as a “transient disability” of the twenty-first century and functions as a cultural metaphor. People with autism are consistently portrayed as lonely aliens or emotionless computer cyborgs. Autism thus serves as a metaphorical and self-referential device to express the fear, anxiety and confusion towards the growing influence of computer technology and consumerism in postmodernity.
published_or_final_version
Literary and Cultural Studies
Master
Master of Arts

This thesis is a short novel written for a high-functioning autistic audience, about a high-functioning autistic student named Roger. It works on the strengths of autistic youth to create a story to which they can relate and from which they may hopefully learn. It is a character study above anything else, and creates a young student to whom both autistic and non-autistic students alike can relate.

Do tangible, testable links exist between the autistic spectrum and creativity? How would such links work from the perspective of an author with Asperger's Syndrome? To what degree would autism mould the author's work, and how would it affect writing technique and style compared to neurotypical (non autistic spectrum authors)? Do these links provide a tangible advantage? Can an Asperger's author successfully engage a non-Asperger's readership? Has Asperger's become fashionable in fiction and if so what are the benefits/consequences? Can an “extraterrestrial stranded without an orientation manual”1 communicate ideas in a meaningful way to non-autistics? Asperger's Syndrome is a form of high functioning autism where those affected express a range of social, behavioural and perceptual traits which have no actual bearing on their level of intelligence. As an author with Asperger's my intention is to examine the degree to which my autism affects my writing technique and style compared to neurotypical (non autistic) creatives. Asperger's sufferers lack empathy and social skills, therefore creating situations a reader can empathise with is challenging. To an Asperger's other people are 'aliens'. If the characters and scenarios in my work are coloured by my difference, then it may be the difference itself which provides the hook for the reader. To what extent do Asperger's authors need to 'pretend to be normal' in order to engage a neurotypical reader, or to make their work generally marketable? Is there an argument that they shouldn't even try? With increasing diagnosis and better understanding of the autistic spectrum, the Asperger's limited but intense range of interests and ability to focus without human distraction might link in to creative excellence that has an appeal far beyond the boundaries of the autistic spectrum. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate whether claims of autistic links to creativity are more than heresay. I examine alleged positive evidence for these links, and see how this evidence ties in with my experience both as an Asperger's and an author, with particular regard to my decisions in crafting my novel The Ghost Land.

Elever som har funktionsvariationen autismspektrumstillstånd har kognitiva nedsättningar som kan försvåra förståelsen av ett textinnehåll i skönlitterär genre. Elever med funktionsvariationen kan vara duktiga på att avkoda text. Det kan däremot vara vårt att förklara innehållet, förstå mellan raderna eller koppla texten till sitt eget perspektiv. Studiens syfte är därmed att öka kunskapen om hur några lärare arbetar med skönlitterära texter för elever inom autismspektrumstillstånd. Frågeställningarna tar upp hur lärare arbetar med olika strategier och metoder kring skönlitterära texter, hur lärarna anpassar skönlitterära texter både i undervisningen samt i samband med läsläxor och slutligen vilka hinder respektive möjligheter läsläxor i genren skönlitterära texter kan bidra med för en elev inom autismspektrumstillstånd. För att uppfylla studiens syfte och frågeställningar har en kvalitativ forskningsmetod tillämpats genom semistrukturerade intervjuer. I analysen av empiriska data har den behavioristiska teorin applicerats. Den behavioristiska teorin betonar en individualiserad undervisning, goda läromedel och strategier av upprepningar som arbetssätt. Resultatet visar i att lärarna använde mycket visuella material, boksamtal och läsfixarna som strategier. Samtliga lärare stöttade även en elev inom AST genom att använda skönlitterära texter av elevens intresse med en-till-en-undervisning. Det är i enlighet med vad det behavioristiska perspektivet betonar som viktigt. Samtliga lärare betonade även vikten av att samarbeta med vårdnadshavare, då elever inom AST behöver få en god stöttning och med samma uppgifter i både hemmet som i skolan. Slutligen delger lärarna att elever inom AST har olika individuella behov, därmed är det betydelsefullt att ha en mer ingående kunskap om AST för ett förbättringsarbete i skolverksamheten.
Students with functional variation have cognitive impairments that can make it difficult to understand a textual content in a fiction genre. Students with functional variation happens to be good at decoding texts, but to be able to explain the content, understanding between the lines or connect the text to their own perspective is something that is complicated for a student with functional variation. The purpose of the study is thus to increase knowledge about how some teachers work with fictional texts for students in autism spectrum disorders. The questions address how teachers work with different strategies and methods around fictional texts, how teachers adapt fictional texts both in teaching and in connection with reading lessons and finally what obstacles and opportunities reading lessons in the genre of fictional texts can contribute to a student within autism spectrum disorders. To fulfil the aim and answer the research questions, the qualitative research method through semi-structured interviews has been applied through semi-structured interviews. In order to be able to analyze the empirical data, a behavioristic perspective has been applied. The behavioristic perspective emphasizes individualized teaching, good teaching materials and strategies of repetition as a way of working. The result remained that the teachers used a lot of visual materials, book talks and reading fixes as strategies. The teachers also supported the student with autism spectrum disorder by using fiction texts of the student's interest with one-on-one teaching. All teachers also emphasize the importance of cooperating with guardians, as students within autism spectrum disorder have to receive a good support and with the same tasks both at home and at school. Finally, the teachers reported that students within autism spectrum disorder have different individual needs, thus it is important to have a more in-depth knowledge of autism spectrum disorder for improvement work in school activities.

Within the field of Disability Studies, research on cognitive and developmental disabilities is relatively rare in comparison to other types of disabilities. Using Clifford Geertz's anthropological approach, "thick description," autism can be better understood by placing both fiction and non-fiction accounts of the disorder into a larger theoretical context. Applying concepts from existing works in Disability Studies to the major writings of Jacques Derrida, Julia Kristeva, Jacques Lacan, and Donna Haraway also proves to be mutually enlightening. This ethnographic approach within the context of analysis of literary texts provides a model by which representations of individuals who are cognitively or developmentally disabled can be included in the academy.

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CAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior
Indivíduos com Transtorno do Espectro Autista apresentam desempenho deficiente em atividades que demandam atenção conjunta, imitação e leitura de intenções, o que afeta principalmente seu comportamento social e comunicação. A ecolalia, repetição das palavras exatas de um discurso anterior (KANNER, 1943), está relacionada a tal condição cognitiva (CARPENTER; TOMASELLO, 2000). A fala ecolálica de indivíduos com autismo possui, em sua maioria, função comunicativa (SCHULER, 1979; PRIZANT; RYDELL, 1984; PRIZANT; DUCHAN, 1987; RYDELL; MIRENDA, 1991; FERNANDES, 2003; DOBBINSON; PERKINS; BOUCHER, 2003; STERPONI; SHANKEY, 2014). Entendemos as produções ecolálicas funcionais como tipos de interação fictiva, que consiste na utilização de reportações discursivas, ou do padrão de interação, como estratégias comunicativas. A interação fictiva implica o uso de um domínio cognitivo baseado em interações face a face aplicado a outras funções no processo comunicativo, o frame de conversa, diferentes da meramente reportativa. Essas construções têm sido identificadas em vários gêneros discursivos, em diferentes línguas e em casos de afasia de Broca (PASCUAL, 2006; 2014; PASCUAL; SANDLER, 2016). O presente trabalho tem como objetivos: mapear as ocorrências de interação fictiva na fala ecolálica, sua tipologia e desenvolvimento nos casos de crianças com Transtorno do Espectro Autista; comparar os resultados com dois grupos controle, o primeiro correspondendo idade cognitiva com as crianças com TEA e o segundo, idades cronológicas. Para isso, foram realizados dois estudos: um estudo empírico, com a gravação audiovisual interações semiespontâneas entre cinco crianças autistas (quatro meninos com TEA severo e uma menina com TEA moderado) e suas terapeutas em sessões semanais durante um mês, totalizando quatro sessões para cada criança. Com base nos achados do primeiro estudo, foram elaboradas duas tarefas para elicitação de dados, também aplicadas nas mesmas crianças com TEA pelas terapeutas. As crianças dos grupos controle realizaram interações semelhantes no primeiro estudo e as mesmas atividades no segundo estudo, com suas mães. Observou-se que as crianças com autismo utilizaram não só ecolalias com repetição ipsis litteris do discurso anterior, mas também ecolalias mitigadas, em que houve acréscimo de palavras no enunciado ecolálico para que este se adequasse ao contexto; também houve produção de paráfrases e até mesmo algumas ocorrências mais criativas utilizando padrão pergunta-resposta. Essas construções eram utilizadas para acesso ao léxico, sanar dificuldade de estruturação gramatical e referenciar personagens ou pessoas. As crianças do grupo controle 1 (de dois a quatro anos de idade) também utilizaram construções de interação fictiva com repetição de discurso anterior quando se deparavam com dificuldades gramaticais e discursivas. As crianças do grupo controle 2 (de seis a doze anos), utilizaram as construções de interação fictiva de modo mais criativo, com poucas ocorrências de repetição, e como opção discursiva, em vez de estratégia adaptativa. Os resultados sugerem que as construções de interação fictiva foram mais eficazes e mais frequentes que outras estratégias no grupo de crianças com TEA. A utilização do frame de conversa parece ser, então, de grande importância para que esse grupo seja capaz de se engajar no discurso e buscar estratégias comunicativas com seus interlocutores.
Individuals with Autistic Spectrum Disorder have poor performance in activities that demand joint attention, imitation and intention reading, which mainly affects their social behavior and communication. Echolalia, the repetition of the exact words from a prior discourse (KANNER, 1943), is related to such cognitive condition (CARPENTER; TOMASELLO, 2000). The echolalic speech of individuals with autism has, in general, a communicative function (SCHULER, 1979; PRIZANT; RYDELL, 1984; PRIZANT; DUCHAN, 1987; RYDELL; MIRENDA, 1991; FERNANDES, 2003; DOBBINSON; PERKINS; BOUCHER, 2003; STERPONI; SHANKEY, 2014). We understand functional echolalic productions as fictive interaction constructions, which consists in the use of discursive reportations, or the pattern of interaction, as communicative strategies. The fictive interaction implies the use of a cognitive domain based on face-to-face interactions applied to other functions in the communicative process, the conversation frame, differently from the merely reportive one. These constructions have been identified in several discursive genres, in different languages and in cases of Broca's aphasia (PASCUAL, 2006; 2014; PASCUAL; SANDLER, 2016). The present work has as objectives: mapping the occurrences of fictive interaction in the echolalic speech, its typology and development in the cases of children with Autisic Spectrum Disorder; compare the results with two control groups, the first corresponding cognitive ages with children with ASD and the second, chronological ages. Two studies were carried out: an empirical study, with audiovisual recording of semi-spontaneous interactions between five autistic children (four boys with severe ASD and one girl with moderate ASD) and their therapists in weekly sessions during one month, totaling four sessions for each child. Based on the findings of the first study, two data elicitation tasks were also developed, applied in the same children with ASD by the therapists. The children in the control groups performed similar interactions in the first study and the same activities in the second study with their mothers. It was observed that children with autism used not only ipsis literal repetitions of the previous discourse, but also mitigated echolalias, in which there was an addition of words in the echolaliclic statement so that it adapted to the context; there was also production of paraphrases and even some more creative occurrences using question-answer pattern. These constructions were used to access the lexicon, to solve difficult grammatical structuring and to refer to characters or people. Children in the control group 1 (two to four years old) also used fictional interaction constructions with repetition of previous discourse when faced with grammatical and discursive difficulties. Children in the control group 2 (six to twelve years old) used fictive interaction constructions in a more creative way, with few occurrences of repetition, and as a discursive option rather than an adaptive strategy. The results suggest that fictive interaction constructions were more effective and more frequent than other strategies in the group of children with ASD. The use of the conversation frame seems to be of great importance for this group to be able to engage in discourse and come up with communicative strategies with its interlocutors.

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O presente trabalho teve o objetivo de discutir a constituição do universo e a definição dos critérios de verdade da narrativa judicial. Adotando como marcos teórico filosofia aristotélica e as decorrentes reflexões sobre tempo e narrativa de Paul Ricouer e sobre ação comunicativa de Jürgen Habermas, iniciou-se uma revisão das teorias da ação, de base teleológica, da filosofia, as suas consequências para a construção da teoria do fato na ciência jurídica, e a passagem da ação à narração por meio da teoria dos atos de fala. Chegando à questão da narrativa, analisaram-se, a partir de Paul Ricouer, suas principais modalidades, a narrativa histórica e a ficção, sendo que a primeira apresenta uma pretensão de correspondência, verificada pelas provas fornecidas pelo historiador, e a segunda uma pretensão de credibilidade, verificada pela coerência narrativa. À primeira vista, a narrativa judicial seria enquadrada como forma de narrativa histórica, em face da evidente relação entre verdade-correspondência e justiça. No entanto, existem vários indicadores no sistema e na prática jurídica de que nem sempre se alcança a correspondência, mesmo quando não se trata de um problema de insuficiência cognitiva, mas de proibição jurídica de acesso aos elementos disponíveis. Isto é justificado, em parte, porque o processo judicial teria outros valores a preservar além da verdade, mas poderia também ser dito o contrário, que, nesses casos, de renúncia à correspondência, outro tipo de pretensão de validade (como a correção normativa ou o consenso) prevalece sobre a busca da correspondência. Portanto, pode-se concluir que a narrativa judicial é ficcional, mas, como a correspondência não pode ser completamente abandonada, trata-se de ficção baseada em fatos reais. A estrutura da narrativa judicial é binária, dividida em história do processo, narrada no modo mimético alto, dentro da qual se revela gradualmente a história do conflito, narrada nos modos mimético baixo ou irônico, em que o desfecho da primeira é simultaneamente o da segunda. Quanto ao narrador, a pluralidade de pontos de vista narrativos é a principal característica, e decorre do próprio sistema (princípio do contraditório) destinando-se a gerar uma incerteza provisória quanto à verdade, a ser superada com a decisão definitiva. O reconhecimento de que cada processo judicial é um pequeno universo ficcional tem por consequência a adoção da coerência, e não da correspondência, como critério de verdPoade. Por ser ficção baseada em fatos reais, a correspondência não é completamente abandonada, já que a coerência pode ser enganosa. A coerência externa pode gerar equívocos quando remete a uma narrativa familiar, no âmbito da tradição, mas que não reflete corretamente o caso em discussão; a coerência interna pode gerar equívocos quando há falso consenso entre as partes, ou não oposição deliberada de uma delas; quando uma narrativa é coerente por um critério e incoerente por outro, a correção do equívoco deve partir da verificação desta divergência até a decisão por um dos critérios; se uma narrativa é duplamente coerente, mas falsa, ou duplamente incoerente, mas verdadeira, os recursos narrativos disponíveis são insuficientes para a correção do problema.
This work intended to discuss how the universe of judicial narrative is constructed and which are its criteria of truth. Adopting Aristotle’s philosophy, and its further developments of the relations between time and narrative, by Paul Ricouer, and of communicative action, by Jürgen Habermas, as the main theoretical framework, it starts reviewing the teleological concept of action, its many philosophical theories, their consequences to the construction of fact as a legal concept, and then its further passage to the narrative theory using the theory of speech acts as a theoretical transition. Regarding narrative theory, Paul Ricouer’s work was used to distinguish the main narrative forms (historical and fictional), according to whom the first has a correspondence claim, verified by the evidence provided by the historian, while the second has a credibility claim, verified by its narrative coherence. At first, it seems evident that judicial narrative should be a form of historical narrative, because of the undeniable relationship between truth (as correspondence) and justice. Despite that, there are many indications, in legal practice, that correspondence is not always reached, not only because of a cognitive defect, but also because of a legal prohibition to access and evaluate the available data. It is justified, in part, by the thought that the Judicial System has other goals, besides truth-finding, but that can be phrased in a different way: when it is a case of abandonment of correspondence, other types of validity-claims (like normative correction or consensus) prevail over its search. So, it can be said that judicial narrative is fictional, but, since correspondence can’t be completely abandoned, it is fiction based on true facts. Judicial narrative’s structure is binary, divided in the trial story, told in the high mimetic mode, in which the conflict story, told in the low mimetic or the ironic mode, is gradually revealed, and the ending of the first is also the ending of the second. Regarding the narrators, the plurality of points of view is the most important aspect, which is a consequence of the system itself and destined to generate a provisional uncertainty about the truth, that the final decision will overcome. Recognizing each case file as a fictional universe means that coherence, and not correspondence, has to be adopted as the criterion of truth. On the other hand, since it is a true facts based fiction, correspondence can’t be completely abandoned, because coherence can be misleading. External coherence can be misleading when it evokes a familiar narrative, ingrained in the tradition, but that doesn’t reflect correctly the particular case. Internal coherence can be misleading when there is a false consensus between the parties, or a false confession by one of them; when a narrative is coherent by one measure and incoherent by another, the correction can come from a verification of this divergence and a decision for one of the criteria, but if a narrative is doubly coherent, but false, or doubly incoherent, but true, the narrative resources are insufficient to correct the problem.

Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
In January, 2009, as part of my research for this award, I discovered my mother had been born in a Nazi concentration camp for the extermination of Slavic infants. The following Palm Sunday, I was the first descendant of a Polish infant survivor to have visited the site of the Frauen Entbindungslager, Birth and Abortion Camp, in Waltrop, Recklinghausen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. I shared communion with a predominantly octogenarian congregation that been young men and women in 1943, some of them the residents of this German Catholic town when it enforced the fates of the pregnant Slav workers. Nearly seventy years after my mother’s escape, I became the custodian of a story I should never have been born to tell. Although more a piece of literary fiction than an autobiographical novel, >>The Glass Mountain<< engages with family stories to explore the depth, transference and healing of trauma across four generations as it weaves between the contemporary Australian lives of Kaz and her autistic 17 year old son, Jason, and the experiences of Zuitka and her infant daughter, Julka, in Germany during the last years of WWII. In 2011, Christophe Laue from the Herford Archive, Herford, North Rhine-Westphalia emailed Nazi documents relating to my mother, as well as an historical book and a museum program in which she is named. Scholars have asked, “What happened to Danuta Anita?” The exegesis, >>The Legacy of Danuta Anita<<, responds to this while exploring practice led research in creative projects involving intergenerational trauma and migration. It engages with the researcher as subject, authorial authenticity and performativity, the science and literature of trauma and intergenerational (transgenerational) trauma, the unreliability of memory in researching trauma narratives, the origins and ongoing influences of eugenics, infanticide and genocide, and the complexities of representing trauma and autism in literature.

This chapter begins to define empathy by looking at how the term circulates in popular scientific discourse. Empathy is discussed in the context of the emergence of brain-imaging technologies and the significant rise in diagnoses of autism and Asperger’s syndrome. The first section, ‘Locating empathy’, surveys the scientific research on empathy and autism emerging out of cognitive psychology, examining how different schools of thought have turned to the neurosciences to evidence their claims. The following section, ‘Phenomenology and empathy’, turns to phenomenology to identify a theory of empathy that is located not in the individual subject, but rather in the world that we share. In the final section, ‘Narrating autism’, Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is discussed as a ‘syndrome novel’ that can open up reflection on the phenomenological dimensions of autism as well as the cultural politics of diagnosis.