Neurodiversitet og litteratur

Lykkens fænomenologi, sansningernes politik og Sylvia Plaths tulipaner

Resumé

Since the late 1990s, neurodiversity has become an increasingly important concept in political and academic debates about neurological differences. In contrast to psychiatric diagnoses such as autism and ADHD, the concept of neurodiversity was coined by a group of people who tried to make sense of the marginalization they experienced when unsuccessfully attempting to fit in with societal norms. In this article, I present the neurodiversity paradigm through readings of Sonya Freeman Loftis, M. Remi Yergeau, and Robert Chapman, and I suggest ways of combining it with the study of literature. I draw inspiration from phenomenologically oriented queer theorists such as Sara Ahmed and Elizabeth Freeman, and I argue that a focus on sensation and particularly overwhelming sensations can be a fruitful way of introducing neurodiversity into literary studies. As a way of developing the analytical potentials of the theoretical reflections, the article ends with an analysis of the sensorial situation in Sylvia Plath’s poem “Tulips”, published posthumously in Ariel in 1965.