Lost and Found: Intimacy and Distance in Three Motherhood Memoirs about Autistic Children
This chapter explores the complexities of maternal representations of autistic children through an analysis of the play of intimacy and distance within three book-length memoirs. Robertson examines how mothers write about their child’s neurological difference whilst also representing the feelings of...
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| Format: | Book Chapter |
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Demeter Press
2013
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/6754 |
| _version_ | 1848745168320069632 |
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| author | Robertson, Rachel |
| author2 | Justine Dymond |
| author_facet | Justine Dymond Robertson, Rachel |
| author_sort | Robertson, Rachel |
| building | Curtin Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | This chapter explores the complexities of maternal representations of autistic children through an analysis of the play of intimacy and distance within three book-length memoirs. Robertson examines how mothers write about their child’s neurological difference whilst also representing the feelings of loss that such a difference may provoke. She compares the paradigms for understanding disability evident in each text, and suggests that the socio-cultural paradigm allows for a construction of disability that is progressive and sophisticated. Reflecting also on the author’s own lived experience of mothering an autistic child, this chapter shows the limitations within some current motherhood memoirs and points to new directions for the genre. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T06:13:04Z |
| format | Book Chapter |
| id | curtin-20.500.11937-6754 |
| institution | Curtin University Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T06:13:04Z |
| publishDate | 2013 |
| publisher | Demeter Press |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | curtin-20.500.11937-67542023-02-07T08:01:23Z Lost and Found: Intimacy and Distance in Three Motherhood Memoirs about Autistic Children Robertson, Rachel Justine Dymond Nicole Willey motherhood memoir autism disability This chapter explores the complexities of maternal representations of autistic children through an analysis of the play of intimacy and distance within three book-length memoirs. Robertson examines how mothers write about their child’s neurological difference whilst also representing the feelings of loss that such a difference may provoke. She compares the paradigms for understanding disability evident in each text, and suggests that the socio-cultural paradigm allows for a construction of disability that is progressive and sophisticated. Reflecting also on the author’s own lived experience of mothering an autistic child, this chapter shows the limitations within some current motherhood memoirs and points to new directions for the genre. 2013 Book Chapter http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/6754 Demeter Press restricted |
| spellingShingle | motherhood memoir autism disability Robertson, Rachel Lost and Found: Intimacy and Distance in Three Motherhood Memoirs about Autistic Children |
| title | Lost and Found: Intimacy and Distance in Three Motherhood Memoirs about Autistic Children |
| title_full | Lost and Found: Intimacy and Distance in Three Motherhood Memoirs about Autistic Children |
| title_fullStr | Lost and Found: Intimacy and Distance in Three Motherhood Memoirs about Autistic Children |
| title_full_unstemmed | Lost and Found: Intimacy and Distance in Three Motherhood Memoirs about Autistic Children |
| title_short | Lost and Found: Intimacy and Distance in Three Motherhood Memoirs about Autistic Children |
| title_sort | lost and found: intimacy and distance in three motherhood memoirs about autistic children |
| topic | motherhood memoir autism disability |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/6754 |