‘And Besides: Autobiographical Essays on Parenting and Difference’ and ‘Representation, Counter-narrative and Culture in Parental Memoirs about Autism’

Abstract

This thesis comprises a creative work and an exegesis, and explores parental memoirs about autistic children. I examine the narrative stances and strategies available to parental memoirists and how these can be used to represent the child ethically, to create a counter-narrative and to engage with the cultural dimensions of autism. The creative work is a series of autobiographical essays. The exegesis analyses five published parental memoirs and the narrative strategies used within them.