autism in contemporary literature and film
Instructor: Chris Foss
Department: English, Linguistics, and Speech Department
Course Number: FSEM 100A4
CRN: 11524 or 12150
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This section of FSEM 100 is a writing-intensive, student-centered course designed to introduce you to the pursuit (and the joys) of intellectual inquiry. All first-year seminars should provide you with the genuine opportunity to seek knowledge and meaning, and even to contribute to the creation of said knowledge and meaning; you may therefore expect the course format to be based on active, discussion-based, participatory learning. Within this format you will use both writing and class discussion as tools for the exploration and expression of ideas and arguments toward the ultimate end of synthesizing material from multiple sources in order to develop your own views on our topic.
All first-year seminars, while based on this common set of principles, revolve around distinct individual topics that reflect the particular instructor's background and interests. This section derives its focus from my work within the interdisciplinary field of disability studies. (What is disability studies? See Course Focus below.) Throughout the semester we will be examining representations of autism and autism-spectrum disorders such as Asperger's Syndrome in contemporary literature and film. (What is autism? See Course Focus below.) As your pursuit of intellectual inquiry in this course is fundamentally exploratory in nature, I will give your class discussion and your writing enough free range to allow you to engage in an intensive study of such representations of autism and/or to apply insight drawn from our more narrow focus either toward a comparable consideration of other specific disabilities or a broader understanding of disability in general.
COURSE GOALS
The main objective of this course is to help you develop the intellectual skills necessary for liberal learning. Consequently, this course should provide you with an opportunity to practice careful analysis of primary source material (both written and visual) in a focused and directed way. It also should allow you to demonstrate independent critical thinking skills in a variety of ways.
As a Writing Intensive course, this first-year seminar will help you develop your writing skills through frequent writing experiences followed by prompt evaluation, in the form of both peer feedback and instructor comments. It in part will serve as an introduction to the conventions and expectations of college-level writing; accordingly, it should promote attitudes, principles, and techniques that will improve your ability to write clear and coherent prose. Hopefully, you will scrutinize your own writing process in order to identify your strengths and weaknesses as a writer and to begin to develop necessary problem-solving strategies where those weaknesses are concerned.
Finally, this course aims to lead you to a complex, profound engagement with autism/autism-spectrum disorders and by extension to new ways of thinking about related disability issues including but not limited to autonomy, civil rights, difference, dignity, discrimination, education, family, health care, etc.
COURSE FOCUS
For some time now the percentage of America's population diagnosed with autism has been outpacing that of all other developmental disabilities. Many of us are now familiar with the startling numbers: according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 1 in 150 children born in America now have an autism-spectrum disorder (translation: there is a new diagnosis approximately every 20 minutes).
What is autism? We will spend the whole semester just beginning to answer this question, and we will spend part of our third session together establishing a preliminary working definition toward that purpose. Thus, my brief characterization of it here necessarily needs to understood for what it is—a cursory description. The Autism Society of America defines autism as "a complex developmental disability that typically appears during the first three years of life and is the result of a neurological disorder that affects the normal functioning of the brain, impacting development in the areas of social interaction and communication skills." Consequently, most individuals with autism manifest marked deficits in language use (some are completely nonverbal) and in social skills. They also typically experience delays in both fine and gross motor skills, and they typically experience difficulties with sensory integration. Finally, they may be likely to struggle with personality/behavioral issues ranging from particular perseverative language or actions (such as scripted and repetitive conversation or rocking and flapping) to more general tendencies toward aloofness, anger/defiance, and/or rigidity.
What else is autism? It is a very difficult (particularly for those who are nonverbal) but also in some ways a very wonderful way of experiencing the world. The flickering of fluorescent lighting or the hum of machines can drive you to distraction, even tantrums, but on the other hand you may actually see music or feel color. You may have no clue how to hold an extended conversation with anyone or you may completely miss nearly all social cues, but (as Tony Attwood has noted) because you typically take people at face value, you tend to be free of cultural biases. If you are verbal, you may end up putting your foot in your mouth more frequently than most, but you likely speak directly and truthfully, without cant or dissembling. You may be characterized as socially awkward or humorless, but you bring an incredible amount of enthusiasm to the things you love. You may not succeed at school and/or work, but you may have an exceptional memory and a profound attention to detail (and, in some cases, savant abilities).
What is disability studies? I will devote much of our second session to introducing you to this fast-growing interdisciplinary field within academia, and I will be supplementing our discussions (as appropriate) throughout the semester with relevant secondary material that will continue to sharpen your sense of this field. Here again, then, a brief account will suffice. According to the Society for Disability Studies, a disability studies perspective first and foremost posits disability as a fundamental aspect of the human experience—as fundamental as age, class, gender, race, and sexual orientation. As Simi Linton puts it, "We prod people to examine how disability as a category was created to serve certain ends and how the category has been institutionalized in social practices and intellectual conventions." Its end is not merely cultural and/or sociopolitical critique, however. Ultimately, it aims to empower disabled people (in Linton's words) "remak[ing] [them] as full citizens whose rights and privileges are intact, whose history and contributions are recorded, and whose often distorted representations in art, literature, film, theater, and other forms of artistic expression are fully analyzed."
Throughout the semester, then, we will explore the ramifications of the language we use to talk about disability (for example, what sets of assumptions are put into play when one uses terms like abnormal, handicapped, impaired, physically challenged, special needs, sufferer/victim?). We also will debate the extent to which one can, or should, see disability as primarily a cultural, medical, and/or social phenomenon. Finally, we will attempt always to remain attune to the ways in which one’s lived experience of disability is impacted by difference—both difference in one's type(s) of disability and difference in one's age, class, gender, race, and/or sexual orientation.
Putting the two together, then, we will spend the semester exploring how an intensive immersion-experience with representations of autism might serve as a test case for how the disability studies perspective may help us increase our awareness of popular attitudes toward disability in particular and popular attitudes toward difference in general.
COURSE FORMAT
For me, education should be all about process. Yes, you’ll need me to supply you with a fair amount of content-based information. At the same time, I never want my classroom to be a place where you come to receive passive information transmissions. It is what you do with that information—your process of actively engaging with the material—that is most important. Discussion, rather than lecture, is my primary method of delivery, precisely because I see it as the best means of fostering an environment in which process and multiplicity are encouraged (as well as an excellent means of honing one’s ability to think critically and to express oneself clearly and accurately). I offer a variety of discussion-based formats: instructor-led large group discussions, student-led large group discussions, small group discussions, and electronic discussion forums.
If any of this discussion is to be successful, you must believe that I value your personal opinions and that I value discussion which does not seek to close itself off by deducing or producing the correct answer. You must come to see that there are very few easy answers and that working to complicate rather than complete questions often times is more intellectually satisfying, if also more challenging. You must be free to disagree and comfortable enough to chance a potentially off-the-wall idea even if you end up feeling a little foolish about it later, or as a class we may lose too many opportunities to move beyond answers one may simply memorize to a more complex consideration of multiple possibilities. You must be willing to explore questions without any pressure to decide upon final answers until later—sometimes as late as the final examination, or even beyond the end of the course.
Class time will revolve around the two inextricably interrelated activities of reading and writing as the means for providing you both with a thorough knowledge of autism (and, to a lesser extent, of disability in general) and with a better understanding of writing (and the writing process). Your homework and your in-class activities accordingly are geared toward providing you with a working knowledge both of basic methods for close reading of primary texts and of strategies for writing about these texts. As a Writing Intensive course, it aims to enhance your comprehension of the course material (and, in the process, to help you become an improved writer) by requiring you to write frequently about that material and by holding multiple writing workshops throughout the semester. Throughout the semester you will spend a fair amount of time discussing writing strategies, analyzing essays, and completing (and then sharing) nongraded in-class writing assignments that will serve as a springboard for discussion and/or an exercise in honing your critical writing skills.
Whether our focus at any given time is reading or writing or both, you will need to move away from the idea of the classroom as a place you go to be lectured at by a teacher. Instead, you must think of this classroom as a studio where you come to think and to write, to share your ideas and your writings, and to reflect critically on those ideas and those writings.
ASSIGNMENTS
You will write four graded essays this semester, and you also will write an in-class essay for your final examination. You must complete all four essays and the final examination in order to pass the course.
For your first essay, you will write a short personal essay in which you narrate or describe how your life has (or, has not) been impacted by disability. You may depart from our focus on autism in order to concentrate on a more personally meaningful disability. For your second essay you will need to offer detailed analysis in support of an argumentative thesis on the lived experience of disability. You either may stick with the assigned readings from our nonfiction unit for your focus, or you may identify and analyze lived experiences of disability beyond those featured on the calendar. Possible avenues of exploration include a more personal essay on a friend or family member living with one or more disability, or a more scientific report on data pertaining to the lived experience of disability. For your third essay you will offer detailed analysis in support of an argumentative thesis on literary representations of disability. You again either may stick with the assigned readings from our fiction unit for your focus, or you may identify and analyze fictional literary representations of disability beyond those featured on the calendar. You certainly may incorporate some comparison/contrast of nonfiction and fiction representations of disability as part of your argument if you wish. For your fourth essay, you will write another short essay, this one a response to one of the events here at UMW scheduled as part of our Disability Awareness Month in April. I am open to alternative response topics, pending my prior approval. For your final examination, you will write on media representations (exclusive of literature). You may craft an argument about one or more of the films we will be viewing; however, you also may select your own choice of a film (or films) not covered in class, or you may select a primary source belonging to other media such as music, television, theatre, or the visual arts. You again may depart from a focus on autism in order to concentrate on a more personally meaningful disability.
Each essay (with the exception of the first one) will be assigned at least two weeks prior to its respective due date, at which time you will receive all necessary further information. A late paper will have its grade knocked down one full grade level (that is, from A to B) for each class that passes without your turning it in (starting with the due-date meeting) unless I have granted you an extension ahead of time. The official paper deadline is at the beginning, rather than the end, of the due-date class period. Any and all use of secondary sources must be indicated using the MLA documentation system, which I will go over in class during one or more of our mini-writing workshops. You also will be required to complete a rough draft for the first three essays, each of which you will submit for peer critique during a class period before the essay is due.
CLASS PARTICIPATION AND QUIZ GRADES
Your active class participation is required. The points for this portion of your grade primarily will come from oral contributions to in-class discussions (both in small group and in large group formats), plus any in-class writing assigned (including peer critiques of rough drafts). Our discussions will ask you to practice close reading of the assigned texts. Accordingly, you need to take these discussions seriously by coming prepared to talk about what you have read. For those of you who wish to pad your oral class participation with extra-credit points, I will be setting up a Blackboard discussion forum as an electronic supplement to our in-class work. Finally, I also will be giving frequent unannounced quizzes (with no make-ups) as part of a separate quiz grade.
ABSENCE POLICY
You will be allotted five absences for this semester (this includes tardy arrivals, which accumulate into absences based on minutes late). More than five absences and you automatically will fail the class participation portion of the class (exceptions only under "exceptional" circumstances). If absent, remember that it is your responsibility to find out if you missed anything important. In particular, before the next class period you should check to see if the assignments on the calendar have been added to or changed in any way.
GRADING
The distribution that will make up your grade is as follows:
Quizzes: 10%
Class participation: 15%
Essay #1 (2 pages): 5%
Essay #2 (4 pages): 25%
Essay #3 (4 pages): 25%
Essay #4 (2 pages): 10%
Final examination: 10%
You must complete all five major written assignments to pass this course. In all this work you must abide by Mary Washington's Honor Code and, thus, refrain from lying, cheating, and stealing in all their various forms.
STANDARDS OF GOOD WRITING
All writing for this course should strive to meet the standards of good writing as agreed upon by the Writing Intensive Program:
- adherence to the assigned task
- clear, sufficient, but limited purpose
- solid development of the paper’s or report’s purpose or thesis, with relevant and ample supporting details
- freshness of thought
- focus (no wandering from the stated purpose or thesis)
- organization suitable to the task
- straightforward, clear style
- standard grammar, spelling, use of language, and punctuation
- correct and appropriate documentation (when documentation is needed)
TEXTS
You have seven required books for this course. In order of appearance, they are:
- Temple Grandin's Emergence
- Barbara LaSalle's Finding Ben
- John Elder Robison's Look Me in the Eye
- Jenny McCarthy's Louder than Words
- Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
- Elizabeth Moon's The Speed of Dark
- Marti Leimbach's Daniel Isn't Talking
You also will be required to watch four films outside of class (with relevant clips from four others presented in class). I will arrange for a screening time for each of these; if you are unable to attend any of these screenings, the films will be on reserve in Combs 211, where you may watch them at your own convenience. The four films, again in order of appearance, are:
- Rain Man
- Mercury Rising
- Mozart and the Whale
- Snow Cake
DISABILITY ACCOMMODATIONS
I will make every effort to accommodate disabilities. The Office of Disability Services has been designated by Mary Washington as the primary office to guide, counsel, and assist students with disabilities. If you already receive services through ODS and require accommodations for this class, please make an appointment with me as soon as possible to discuss your approved accommodation needs. Bring your accommodation letter with you to the appointment. I will hold any information you share with me in strictest confidence unless you give me permission to do otherwise. If you need accommodations (note taking assistance, extended time for tests, etc.) but do not yet have them in place, please see ODS as soon as possible or call ODS at 654-1266. You will need appropriate documentation of disability.
CALENDAR
WEEK 1
T J 15 Introductions/syllabus overview/diagnostic in-class writing
R J 17 Linton 1, Garland-Thomson, Linton 2 (Blackboard scans)
In class: Foss teaching philosophy
WEEK 2
T J 22 WRITING WORKSHOP—ESSAY #1 DRAFT DUE
Autism websites/Foss writing tips document
FILM
R J 24 ESSAY #1 DUE
In class: Film clips from Change of Habit
NONFICTION
WEEK 3
T J 29 Grandin (all)
R J 31 La Salle (1-130)
In class: MLA documentation
WEEK 4
T F 05 La Salle (131-271)
R F 07 RESEARCH WORKSHOP—MEET IN SIMPSON 225
Robison (1-141)
WEEK 5
T F 12 Robison (143-282)
R F 14 McCarthy (all)
In class: MLA documentation quiz
WEEK 6
T F 19 WRITING WORKSHOP—ESSAY #2 DRAFT DUE
FILM
R F 21 ESSAY #2 DUE
In class: Film clips from The Boy Who Could Fly
FICTION
WEEK 7
T F 26 Haddon (1-112)
R F 28 Haddon (112-221)
WEEK 8—SPRING BREAK
WEEK 9
T M 11 Moon (1-91)
R M 13 GUEST SPEAKER: ARI NE'EMAN (President, The Autistic Self-Advocacy Network)
Moon (92-169)
WEEK 10
T M 18 Moon (170-254)
R M 20 Moon (255-340)
WEEK 11
T M 25 Leimbach (1-140)
R M 27 Leimbach (140-275)
WEEK 12
T A 01 WRITING WORKSHOP—ESSAY #3 DRAFT DUE
FILM
R A 03 ESSAY #3 DUE
In class: Film clips from Silent Fall and Gigli
WEEK 13
T A 08 Rain Man
R A 10 Mercury Rising
NOTE: DISABILITY AWARENESS FILM FEST THIS WEEKEND!
WEEK 14
T A 15 Mozart and the Whale
R A 17 Snow Cake
WEEK 15
T A 22 ESSAY #4 DUE—NO CLASS (KEMP SYMPOSIUM)
R A 24 Conclusions/Return Essay #4
FINAL EXAMINATION—Thurs., May 1, 8:30 a.m.