lnu.sePublications
System disruptions
We are currently experiencing disruptions on the search portals due to high traffic. We are working to resolve the issue, you may temporarily encounter an error message.
Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
Advocating sensitivity: what would a neurodivergent reading of speculative fiction tell us about unfolding futures?
Linnaeus University, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Department of Film and Literature. (LNUC Intermedial and multimodal studies, IMS)ORCID iD: 0000-0002-0130-8416
2023 (English)Conference paper, Oral presentation with published abstract (Refereed)
Sustainable development
SDG 16: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels
Abstract [en]

The neurodiversity paradigm has raised from autism rights movement and advocates for the acknowledgment of variations in cognition and behavior as diversities and not disorders. Addressing a wide range of sensory, behavioral, and cognitive variations such as ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder), SPD (Sensory Processing Disorder), and ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder), the neurodiversity paradigm engages with a social understanding of these variations as (dis)abilities by emphasizing on the importance of recognizing them as different ways of being, while at the same time foregrounding the pain of the neurodivergent community in navigating a world which does not accommodate their sensitivities. ‘Sensitivity’, at sensory and emotional levels and to various stimuli, is one of the main nodes that connect such different variations. Interestingly, (hyper)sensitivity has as well been a popular characterization tool for the creation of more-than-human characters in works of speculative fiction that address the climate crisis. A notable example, and the focus of this paper, is Lauren Olamina, the main character in Octavia E. Butler’s celebrated novel, Parable of the Sower: a character who can feel the pain of the others, a trait which is shared by many neurodivergent people in their experiences of over-empathizing. In this paper, I will look at the different materializations of this character in the novel as well its adaptations, particularly its comics adaptation by Damian Duffy and John Jennings (2020), with a neurodivergent lens, to put in dialogue the two narratives of climatic apocalypse and neurodiversity. Doing so, I vouch for foregrounding ‘sensitivity’ in the discourses around climate justice and I argue that acknowledging the knowledge and perception of neurodivergent communities can lead to a better understanding of new forms of life and existing futures. 

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2023.
Keywords [en]
Speculative fiction, disability studies, neurodiversity, hyperempathy, environmental justice
National Category
Specific Literatures
Research subject
Humanities, Comparative literature
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-119849OAI: oai:DiVA.org:lnu-119849DiVA, id: diva2:1744394
Conference
Environmental Emergencies Across Media Linnaeus University, Kalmar
Available from: 2023-03-19 Created: 2023-03-19 Last updated: 2023-03-30Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

No full text in DiVA

Other links

Conference website

Authority records

Mousavi, Nafiseh

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Mousavi, Nafiseh
By organisation
Department of Film and Literature
Specific Literatures

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar

urn-nbn

Altmetric score

urn-nbn
Total: 590 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf