Why classical myth and autism?

Why classical myth and autism?

The idea for this project started to take shape at a meeting in 2008 with a special needs teacher, who mentioned that, in her experience and those of her colleagues, autistic children often enjoy classical myth. I began to wonder why this might be the case, and whether – as a classicist who researches, and loves, classical myth – there was anything I could contribute. I started this blog to report on my progress which was often sporadic until the launch of the Warsaw-based European Research Council-funded project Our Mythical Childhood (2016-22) to trace the role of classics in children’s culture.

My key contribution to the project is an exploration of classics in autistic children’s culture, above all by producing myth-themed activities for autistic children. This blog shares my progress, often along Herculean paths, including to a book of lessons for autistic children focusing on the Choice of Hercules between two very different paths in life. The image above, illustrating the homepage of this blog, is one of the drawings by Steve K. Simons, the book's illustrator, of a chimneypiece panel in a neoclassical villa at Roehampton in South West London. The lessons centre on this panel.

Friday 9 July 2021

Autistic children speaking out via classical myth - at the Children's History Society conference, June 2021

Last month was a super-active one for me including where autism-linked and myth-linked – and autism-and-myth-linked - activities are concerned. I’ve been involved in so many activities that it’s been hard to do what I like to, namely to reflect on events via this blog. 

Today, though, I am going to make a start with an activity that took place in two stages – for a panel at the latest conference of the Children’s History Society Conference held, via Zoom, at Manchester Metropolitan University, organised by Dr April Pudsey.

The event’s theme was “Children and Young People Speaking Out”. The panel I was on, “Children with Special Needs: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Agency and Autonomy,” concerned what it means for autistic children to speak – including to speak out – via classical myth. 

My contribution was a joint one with Prof. Lisa Maurice, with whom I’ve had quite a few joint projects of late. While the conference took place 17-19 June, Lisa and I met to record our contribution in advance, earlier in June. It’s the first time I have taken part in an event where the live part takes place to discuss recordings circulated beforehand – and it was a special experience recording the session with Lisa.

I ran though initiatives on my part creating – and trying out – activities for autistic children based around the figure of Hercules. I talked about the inception of my Hercules project in the context of interests in myth and in autism - and I shared examples of the resources for activities as well as information about one of the sessions and some examples of workshops I have hosted.

In the Adam Room at the University of Roehampton with
school students from the "Class of 2020' looking at Hercules
choosing on an 18th century panel

Lisa, then, ran through the work she has done – informed by, and in turn informing – mine in collaboration with her colleagues at Bar-Ilan University, including Dr Ayelet Peer.

Some of the slides from my part of the presentation accompany this posting as images, and the video will be available - I'll share it in due course.

Hard Work, Hercules and Pleasure - high-quality drawing by Steve Simons of
a chimneypiece panel in the Adam Room at Roehampton
- the key focus of the activities I was discussing at the conference

Perhaps in part because I hadn’t just given a presentation and so was ‘fresh,’ meeting specifically for discussion worked better, than, for instance the discussion - as I remember it at least - after a paper I gave on the autism activities at the University of Reading for the series “Making Classics Better” in April. We’ll see – that session’s recording is out, and I’ll share it via this blog and via ACCLAIM once I’ve watched it through.

The discussion at the Children’s History Conference panel included consideration of complex emotions and how special interests and skills have a fit with mythological heroes. And we ended – ended because our break-out room closed; we could have continued for longer – with reflections that picked up on a point I’d made concerning how autistic people can find classical myth appealing when they are able to see aspects that reasonate with themselves in characters and scenarios.

The Adam Room scene as coloured and captioned
by Anna Mik at an autism and myth workshop

April Pudsey – as I’ve mentioned above also the organiser of the event – raised the possibility for the fit here with approaches, including queer theories and disability studies, around what it means to find oneself in another world. I suggested that we might have, here, a topic for a future event. There is so much to consider here – including the fit with the LGBT+ History Month event on classics and children’s culture that I’ve blogged about previously...

Comments about the session include this one and this one.

I also carried on threads of discussion afterwards with people who’d been at the session, including on the topic of girls and autism and the figure plans I have for activities including other mythological figures – starting with one I have been considering for years now – Medusa.

 I shall pause for now and aim to blog later on this summer to refection other things I’ve been up to as well as fresh things that come up…