“It must be difficult . . . to imagine a totally different way of perceiving the world,” writes Temple Grandin in her memoir,Thinking In Pictures: My Life with Autism. Similarly, Kay Redfield Jamison writes of bipolar disorder, “I have become fundamentally and deeply skeptical that anyone who does not have this illness can truly understand it.” Nonetheless, writers like Grandin and Jamison write about neurodivegent experience with the intention of reaching audiences that include people whose perceptions of the world resemble theirs and those whose do not. During the last two decades, memoirs and novels that chronicle neurodivergent experience—including autism, mental illness, trauma, brain injury, dyslexia, amnesia, and Tourette’s—have become increasingly common. Narratives of neurodiversity represent social and political movements to expand awareness about the lives of people whose minds and brains are not typical—and to change social structures, especially in education and medicine, in order to improve the quality of those lives. In literary terms, representing neurodiversity raises formal questions: What narrative strategies do writers use to represent various ways of perceiving the world? What is an autistic voice? Or an amnesiac, Tourettic one, or sociopathic one? Do these differ from so-called neurotypical voices? How do fictional voices compare to autobiographical ones? In order to explore these questions, we’ll read theories of consciousness, narrative, and disability in dialogue with narratives of neurodiversity. In addition to Grandin and Jamison, the reading includes: Oliver Sacks, Anthropologist on Mars; Naoki Higashida,The Reason I Jump; Jonathan Lethem, Motherless Brooklyn; Siri Hustvedt, The Shaking Woman; Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Dictee; Richard Powers, The Echo Maker; David B., Epileptic; and Maud Casey, The Man Who Walked Away.

English 391W explores in depth significant historical, critical, methodological or theoretical issues within the study of literature, enabling students, as they complete the English major, to reassess their previous work in the field. Readings might be drawn from, for example, a range of historical periods, a variety of genres, or a mix of canonical and non-canonical writings. The course also asks students to think creatively and analytically about literary texts alongside other media, discourses, or modes of critical inquiry and to reflect upon the broader implications of literary studies in relation to other academic disciplines and the world beyond. The course differs from the typical elective in being taught as a small seminar for students with senior standing, allowing for increased student participation and more ambitious individual projects.

This is a writing intensive course. Students will write regularly, both informally and formally. We will write in class on a regular basis. We will discuss our readings as models for various types of writing, with particular rhetorical or aesthetic goals. Students will publish two blog entries each week, experimenting with various types of writing, and will write a seminar essay, completed in stages (as indicated on the Calendar page). We’ll pay careful attention to the stages of the writing process: generating ideas, asking good questions, developing an argument, drafting, peer review, feedback, and serious revision. The goal will be to improve your prose at the level of the sentence and to advance your analytical and rhetorical abilities through writing.