Thursday, April 12, 2007

Proposal in Process

So, I'm sitting at my computer this morning working on a proposal for an Autism panel at SAMLA chaired by Mark Osteen (a notable name in autism circles), and as usual, I'm having trouble getting started. I thought I might come here and blog a bit to get my thoughts down in a less threatening environment.

I was thinking about doing something with criminalization of autistic individuals in film, and using Hinshaw's book as a jumping off point, but this morning, I've been feeling more inclined to do something with autism and the supranatural or suprahuman (rather than superhuman as Dr. T suggested). Specifically, I'm thinking about the ways in which autism is connected with God, salvation, and spirituality. In the 17th and 18th centuries, "autistic-like" children were believed to be without souls and parents were advised by priests and town elders to kill, drown, or abandon their children in wild. See connections here between feral children and autistic children, for instance. This connection between autism and earlier manifestations of the cognitive condition illustrate a history of autism that refutes environmental toxin, mercury, vaccine arguments on autism as a late 20th century condition.

Interestingly, I think contemporary connection between autism, spirituality, and changelings, as discussed in William Stiller's book Autism and the God Connection, correlates in some ways with the neurodiversity movement. Both are based, in part, on an acceptance-based approach to autism cognition. Autistic individuals are not normal people who are flawed, harmed, or with "deformed" brains (or as one grandmother I read noted--"toxic waste dumps"), but rather unique individuals born with unique cognitive abilities and unique neurological functioning. It seems all the more interesting that Stiller is autistic, himself, so his point-of-view is markedly from within or inside, rather than the parent on the outside--which is the most often point of view regarding autism discourses.

I'm also thinking about how metaphor of "changleing" children comes into play here. Children possessed by demons or lost to some monster/devil who endure some kind of metamorphosis changing from "normal, healthy" toddlers to some vacant, apathetic, "lost" child. (Again, metaphor of the feral children--lost in the wildness of their minds might come into play here.)

So, how might I show this rhetoric? Methodology for carrying out my research? I'm thinking of the representation both in film and text--online and print. Films such as Bless the Child, The Wild Child, Change of Habit... Texts such as Stillman's, Grinker's, and online blogs that illustrate this rhetoric of "changeling" and God and spirituality. I'm not sure if this is as good a methodology as I ought to have but I'll work on this more.

If I were to expand this into "something" larger, say a dissertation (who knew, right?), I would link this discussion with one on autism savants as superhumans with superhuman brains. Back to Rainman and the like. But, that's for another time.

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