In my previous post, I announced a turn in this blog away from a hero, Hercules, to a monster. I said that I would be using the monster in question to explore a particular problem.
That problem, as I said, is the one posed by what is known as Double Empathy Theory where - well here's how I put it last month:
- How neurotypical people feel, communicate, and how their minds work can bewilder autistic people
- The sensory experiences, knowledge and modes of communication of autistic people can be hard to grasp by anyone who is not autistic
So... I outlined the problem, albeit briefly, in the previous post. However, at that point, I held back from naming the monster.
The monster is...
... one who - I'm going to contend - can facilitate a dialogue between the two ways of being. This monster is a mythological entity and symbol whose cultural significance, humanity and way of being can - I shall seek to show - help in the move to open up a more emphatic future.
For the monster is...
 |
| Mosaic in the National Archaeological Museum in Madrid, sourced from Wikimedia Commons here |
...MEDUSA!
I predict that: if Medusa is read though an autistic prism, then the understanding of autism as a distinctive way of being can be furthered, with implications for nurturing mutual empathy between autistic and neurotypical people.
I’m planning to frame this new step in my autism and myth project around the acronym ‘M-E-D-US-A’ where:
- M is for Monster
- E is for Education
- D is for Dimensions
- US is for ‘Ourselves
- A is for Antiquity
Here are some of the questions I intend to ask via M-E-D-US-A:
Monster: which principles of monstrosity underpin the intensity and chaos evoked in depictions of Medusa and other monsters?
Education: what characteristics of a monstrous pedagogy – including a pedagogy that is created around the experiences and cognition of one that is ‘monsterized’ – might frame a series of activities exploring autistic ways of being?
Dimensions: which dimensions of autism, and which facets of the emerging field of Neurodiversity Studies and the more established, though still emerging, field of Disability Studies - in conversation with other academic fields – can frame a study of the various layers of divergence conveyed in representations of Medusa?
US: how might the many Medusas of contemporary culture inform a study of autistic cognition and experiences?
Antiquity: how might the Medusa of ancient representations offer new ways to understand ancient concepts of what it is to experience phenomena differently from dominant norms?
If these questions read as though they should be in a funding proposal rather than a blog, that is because they have been adapted pretty well word for word from exactly that - from an application I made to a research council a while back.
That application came close to succeeding - it got to the final stage, helped presumably by the reviews from the expert advisors. Those advisors enthused about the project in terms of its vision and feasibility. They also wrote encouragingly about myself as the right person to conduct the research.
It was a bold proposal where I was upfront about how the research was to be curiosity-driven and multifaceted. I was upfront, too, about the potential for unplanned aspects which might lead to unforeseen outcomes.
Its goals were ambitious. It was to be a project about the intriguing figure of Medusa. It was to be more than that too. It would have sought to map out an innovative approach to culture with implications for understanding human nature and society in fresh ways.
I still hope to secure funding. And this year - 2025: a year of Medusa?! - I intend to show, via this blog, why I plan to keep trying.
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