The Paratextual Labeling of Autistic-Authored YA Fiction as #OwnVoices: How YA Literary Culture Creates Space for Neurodivergent Authorship

This essay considers the effect of #OwnVoices on autistic literary representation by analyzing how autistic authors use paratexts to prescribe for some readers ways of understanding autistic-authored texts while temporarily refraining from prescribing a particular method for others, allowing readers...

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Main Author:	Jason Michael Abad
Format:	Article
Language:	English
Published:	The Ohio State University Libraries 2021-06-01
Series:	Disability Studies Quarterly
Subjects:	#ownvoices autism autistic authorship literary representation paratext literary theory
Online Access:	https://dsq-sds.org/article/view/7050

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spelling	doaj-9f9245d508cb47eb8feae30f632e8eef2021-06-25T19:26:46ZengThe Ohio State University LibrariesDisability Studies Quarterly1041-57182159-83712021-06-0141210.18061/dsq.v41i2.70504730The Paratextual Labeling of Autistic-Authored YA Fiction as #OwnVoices: How YA Literary Culture Creates Space for Neurodivergent AuthorshipJason Michael Abad0Purdue UniversityThis essay considers the effect of #OwnVoices on autistic literary representation by analyzing how autistic authors use paratexts to prescribe for some readers ways of understanding autistic-authored texts while temporarily refraining from prescribing a particular method for others, allowing readers with opposing ideologies to first read the narrative before they encounter the more didactic elements of the text. Building on Gerrard Genette's theorization of the paratext, this essay compares the use of text and paratext in two works of autistic-authored fiction, Corinne Duyvis's On the Edge of Gone and Jen Wilde's Queens of Geek, to that of Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, a work of allistic-authored YA fiction. The contrast between these two kinds of texts reveals how #ownvoices texts foreground the positionality of the author in ways that enable rather than foreclose discussions about the ethical representation of autistic people.https://dsq-sds.org/article/view/7050#ownvoicesautismautistic authorshipliterary representationparatextliterary theory
collection	DOAJ
language	English
format	Article
sources	DOAJ
author	Jason Michael Abad
spellingShingle	Jason Michael Abad The Paratextual Labeling of Autistic-Authored YA Fiction as #OwnVoices: How YA Literary Culture Creates Space for Neurodivergent Authorship Disability Studies Quarterly #ownvoices autism autistic authorship literary representation paratext literary theory
author_facet	Jason Michael Abad
author_sort	Jason Michael Abad
title	The Paratextual Labeling of Autistic-Authored YA Fiction as #OwnVoices: How YA Literary Culture Creates Space for Neurodivergent Authorship
title_short	The Paratextual Labeling of Autistic-Authored YA Fiction as #OwnVoices: How YA Literary Culture Creates Space for Neurodivergent Authorship
title_full	The Paratextual Labeling of Autistic-Authored YA Fiction as #OwnVoices: How YA Literary Culture Creates Space for Neurodivergent Authorship
title_fullStr	The Paratextual Labeling of Autistic-Authored YA Fiction as #OwnVoices: How YA Literary Culture Creates Space for Neurodivergent Authorship
title_full_unstemmed	The Paratextual Labeling of Autistic-Authored YA Fiction as #OwnVoices: How YA Literary Culture Creates Space for Neurodivergent Authorship
title_sort	paratextual labeling of autistic-authored ya fiction as #ownvoices: how ya literary culture creates space for neurodivergent authorship
publisher	The Ohio State University Libraries
series	Disability Studies Quarterly
issn	1041-5718 2159-8371
publishDate	2021-06-01
description	This essay considers the effect of #OwnVoices on autistic literary representation by analyzing how autistic authors use paratexts to prescribe for some readers ways of understanding autistic-authored texts while temporarily refraining from prescribing a particular method for others, allowing readers with opposing ideologies to first read the narrative before they encounter the more didactic elements of the text. Building on Gerrard Genette's theorization of the paratext, this essay compares the use of text and paratext in two works of autistic-authored fiction, Corinne Duyvis's On the Edge of Gone and Jen Wilde's Queens of Geek, to that of Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, a work of allistic-authored YA fiction. The contrast between these two kinds of texts reveals how #ownvoices texts foreground the positionality of the author in ways that enable rather than foreclose discussions about the ethical representation of autistic people.
topic	#ownvoices autism autistic authorship literary representation paratext literary theory
url	https://dsq-sds.org/article/view/7050
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The Paratextual Labeling of Autistic-Authored YA Fiction as #OwnVoices: How YA Literary Culture Creates Space for Neurodivergent Authorship

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