Neurodivergent Narratives

ogólnouniwersyteckie

Students with a good command of English (B2 or better), as well as basic knowledge in English and related literature are welcome to enrol.

As the course involves a number of selected readings and regular writing assignments, students must be prepared to find time for self-study.

This course explores how neurodivergent perspectives shape literary form, narrative techniques, and character portrayal, while critically examining the cultural, ethical, and social implications of representing cognitive difference in literature.

This course examines how neurodivergent perspectives influence literary form, narrative techniques, and character development. Students will investigate how literature both reflects and interrogates representations of cognitive difference, analysing how these portrayals shape or challenge societal understandings of neurodivergence. The course will focus on the use of literary devices such as narrative voice, fragmented storytelling, and nonlinear memory to convey experiences of neurodivergence. Through a study of diverse literary works, including short stories, essays, and novels, students will explore how neurodivergent characters are depicted and the ways these representations interact with or disrupt conventional portrayals of cognitive norms. Ethical considerations around voice, authority, and the risk of misrepresentation will also be central to discussions. In addition to literary analysis, students will engage with key theoretical texts from literary and cultural disability studies, which will offer frameworks for understanding concepts like neurodivergence, neuroatypicality, and neurodiversity. These readings will deepen students’ ability to critically evaluate the cultural and social contexts that inform representations of neurodivergence in literature. The course will also examine how literary depictions of neuroatypicality, including bibliotherapy narratives, challenge or reinforce societal pressures for normalisation. Students will reflect on the broader implications of these narratives in shaping public attitudes toward neurodivergent identities and the role of literature in questioning or confirming dominant ideologies of cognitive difference. By the end of the course, students will have developed a deeper understanding of how neurodivergent perspectives transform literary expression. This will be achieved through close reading, class discussions, and written assignments that encourage critical engagement with both the texts and the theories surrounding neurodivergence.

Works Cited

Primary Sources [selected fragments from]

Coetzee, J. M. In the Heart of the Country. Vintage, 2004.

Faulkner, William. The Sound and the Fury. Vintage, 1995.

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. "The Yellow Wallpaper." The New England Magazine, 1892.

Haddon, Mark. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Doubleday, 2003.

Higashida, Naoki. The Reason I Jump: The Inner Voice of a Thirteen-Year-Old Boy with Autism. Translated by KA Yoshida and David Mitchell, Random House, 2013.

Keyes, Daniel. "Flowers for Algernon." The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, vol. 16, no. 4, Apr. 1959, pp. 5–29.

McEwan, Ian. Saturday. Vintage, 2005.

Porter, Max. Shy. Faber & Faber, 2023.

Sacks, Oliver. The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales. Simon and Schuster, 1985.

Slater, Lauren. Lying: A Metaphorical Memoir. Random House, 2000.


Secondary Sources [selected fragments from]

Davis, Lennard J. The End of Normal: Identity in a Biocultural Era. University of Michigan Press, 2013.

Davis, Lennard J., editor. The Disability Studies Reader. 5th ed., Routledge, 2016.

Goodley, Dan. Disability Studies: An Interdisciplinary Introduction. 3rd ed., SAGE Publications, 2021.

Hall, Alice. Disability and Modern Fiction: Faulkner, Morrison, Coetzee and the Nobel Prize for Literature. Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.

Mitchell, David T., and Sharon L. Snyder, editors. The Cambridge Companion to Literature and Disability. Cambridge University Press, 2018.

Schalk, Sami. Bodyminds Reimagined: (Dis)ability, Race, and Feminist Theory. Duke University Press, 2018.

Slater, Lauren. Lying: A Metaphorical Memoir. Random House, 2000.

Yergeau, Melanie. Authoring Autism: On Rhetoric and Neurological Queerness. Duke University Press, 2018.

Wong, Alice, editor. Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century. Vintage, 2020.

Knowledge: the graduate student

K_W02 is familiar with basic terms used in literary and cultural disability studies and understands the cultural role of these terms

K_W05 is familiar with basic methods of analysis and interpretation of cultural and literary works concerning the representations of neurodivergence in modern Anglophone literature

K_W06 is familiar with basic trends and concepts in literary and cultural and disability theory

Skills: the graduate student knows how to

K_U02 analyse artworks, scholarly publications, and source texts using disability studies and medical humanities research methods

K_U05 recognise and interpret basic problems and phenomena of the modern world in terms of cultural representations of neurodivergence

K_U07 demonstrate the results obtained through individual work and teamwork in the classroom and in fulfilment of the reading journal component

K_U08 complete basic research assignments in writing in fulfilment of the reading journal component

K_U10 communicate in English at the intermediate level

Social competencies: the graduate student

K_K01 is prepared to foster lifelong learning

K_K02 knows how to work in teams

K_K03 is willing to explore new research methods

K_K04 knows how to use various resources for specific purposes

K_K05 knows how to independently assign tasks

Assessment is based on attendance (up to two absences allowed; absences 3-4 must be certified and made up; absences 5 and over result in failure to pass the course), in-class performance, and timely submissions of assignments comprising the reading journal component (continuous assessment).

Continuous assessment structured around the reading journal component, consisting of regular weekly submissions of short written assignments (approximately 200-300 words in length, up to 7 short assignments in total).