Writing Autism: A Critique of Life, Language and Neurodivergent Cultures - Gareth S. Farmer

Writing Autism: A Critique of Life, Language and Neurodivergent Cultures offers a close critical examination of living in a culture and society from the perspective of neurodivergence, and autism in particular. Along the way, it confronts many of the problematic representations of autism in cultural discourse, taking in both the superstructural and material conditions of living as an autistic person.

Writing Autism approaches form as content, taking inspiration from feminist and queer movements to subvert neurotypical language while signifying the autoreflexive nature of autistic thought. Awkwardness is seen as a kind of imposter in neurotypical writing, whereas in reality, the awkward is often actually the banished truth rearing its head.

Farmer’s use of the second person in place of the first, parentheses within parentheses, alliteration and (the sin of all sins) made-up words present Writing Autism as a process of signifying autistic subjectivity. A category that the cultural and academic left remains far from addressing.