Shifting Autism Popular Fiction: Representing Asperger’s Syndrome in Select Works of Mark Haddon, Jodi Picoult and Steig Larsson
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Abstract
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.
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