Autism Spectrum Conditions are not adequately accounted for within discussions of mental illness, disability, or difference. This is more than just a linguistic complexity as evidenced by media and literary representations that often misrepresent or… Read More »Invisible difference: autistic life writing’s potential to highlight the value of being different
In this work-in-progress paper, I read Hilary Mantel’s memoir as a chronic illness narrative in which ghostly (in)visibility permeates lived experience of undiagnosis (Kafer), epistemic injustice (Fricker) and the cruel optimism (Berlant) of normatively imagined… Read More »“My speech turned into a symptom”: Hilary Mantel’s Giving Up the Ghost (2003) and the Hermeneutics of Suspicion
Contemporary culture is very familiar with the stories of hope and optimism that make up the classic anorexia autobiography. But this is not a truly representative image of anorexia. It is an archetype, developed over… Read More »Occult Anorexia: The Unseen Forces of Anorexia Life-Writing