Meeting text-to-text: familial encounters of love, care, and transformation in autistic life writing

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dc.contributor.advisorMoosa, Hassana
dc.contributor.advisorMohamed, Kharnita
dc.contributor.authorLee, Bianca Mercedes
dc.date.accessioned2026-06-30T10:41:04Z
dc.date.available2026-06-30T10:41:04Z
dc.date.issued2026
dc.date.updated2026-06-30T10:38:31Z
dc.description.abstractHistorically, much of the literature on autism has been occupied by medical and psychoanalytic concerns, while the popular culture media tends to favour autistic stereotypes as the means of representation. The current autistic self-advocacy movement can be characterised by an increase in autistic life writing – mostly memoirs. This thesis analyses the nuances of love, care, and communication encounters between autistic people and their caregivers. This is conducted using three life writing texts centring on autism to provide alternative ways of approaching these interpersonal dynamics. It focuses on the co-authored memoir I Will Die On This Hill (2023) by Meghan Ashburn and Jules Edwards, the epistolary Sincerely, Your Autistic Child (2021) edited by Emily Paige Ballou, Sharon daVanport, and Morénike Giwa Onaiwu, and the memoir Children on the Bridge (2006) by Kirsten Miller. These life writing works utilise hybrid textual forms to convey the contradictions, transformations, and resolutions that arise from autistic and allistic love and care encounters. This hybridity subverts normative textual and communication forms, offering the potential to function as didactic tools for teaching and transforming current and future enactments of love, care, and family-making for autistic people. This research critiques the idealisation of the supermom trope to expose the anxiety that may occur due to the tension between idealised expectations of care and the lived experience of caring for autistic children. It then utilises love theories by Alice Walker and bell to transform the politicised family where acts of love become justice for autistic people. Lastly, the experiences of autistic people are analysed in terms of their hybrid textual and political forms to argue for autistic writing as a blueprint for alternative and adaptive love and care.
dc.identifier.apacitationLee, B. M. (2026). <i>Meeting text-to-text: familial encounters of love, care, and transformation in autistic life writing </i>. (). University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Department of English Language and Literature. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/11427/43425en_ZA
dc.identifier.chicagocitationLee, Bianca Mercedes. <i>"Meeting text-to-text: familial encounters of love, care, and transformation in autistic life writing ."</i> ., University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Department of English Language and Literature, 2026. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/43425en_ZA
dc.identifier.citationLee, B.M. 2026. Meeting text-to-text: familial encounters of love, care, and transformation in autistic life writing . . University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Department of English Language and Literature. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/43425en_ZA
dc.identifier.ris TY - Thesis / Dissertation AU - Lee, Bianca Mercedes AB - Historically, much of the literature on autism has been occupied by medical and psychoanalytic concerns, while the popular culture media tends to favour autistic stereotypes as the means of representation. The current autistic self-advocacy movement can be characterised by an increase in autistic life writing – mostly memoirs. This thesis analyses the nuances of love, care, and communication encounters between autistic people and their caregivers. This is conducted using three life writing texts centring on autism to provide alternative ways of approaching these interpersonal dynamics. It focuses on the co-authored memoir I Will Die On This Hill (2023) by Meghan Ashburn and Jules Edwards, the epistolary Sincerely, Your Autistic Child (2021) edited by Emily Paige Ballou, Sharon daVanport, and Morénike Giwa Onaiwu, and the memoir Children on the Bridge (2006) by Kirsten Miller. These life writing works utilise hybrid textual forms to convey the contradictions, transformations, and resolutions that arise from autistic and allistic love and care encounters. This hybridity subverts normative textual and communication forms, offering the potential to function as didactic tools for teaching and transforming current and future enactments of love, care, and family-making for autistic people. This research critiques the idealisation of the supermom trope to expose the anxiety that may occur due to the tension between idealised expectations of care and the lived experience of caring for autistic children. It then utilises love theories by Alice Walker and bell to transform the politicised family where acts of love become justice for autistic people. Lastly, the experiences of autistic people are analysed in terms of their hybrid textual and political forms to argue for autistic writing as a blueprint for alternative and adaptive love and care. DA - 2026 DB - OpenUCT DP - University of Cape Town KW - Autistic children KW - Caregivers KW - Political form KW - Aesthetic form KW - Family KW - Letters KW - Love KW - Motherhood LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PB - University of Cape Town PY - 2026 T1 - Meeting text-to-text: familial encounters of love, care, and transformation in autistic life writing TI - Meeting text-to-text: familial encounters of love, care, and transformation in autistic life writing UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/43425 ER - en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11427/43425
dc.identifier.vancouvercitationLee BM. Meeting text-to-text: familial encounters of love, care, and transformation in autistic life writing . []. University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Department of English Language and Literature, 2026 [cited yyyy month dd]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/43425en_ZA
dc.language.rfc3066eng
dc.publisher.departmentDepartment of English Language and Literature
dc.publisher.facultyFaculty of Humanities
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Cape Town
dc.subjectAutistic children
dc.subjectCaregivers
dc.subjectPolitical form
dc.subjectAesthetic form
dc.subjectFamily
dc.subjectLetters
dc.subjectLove
dc.subjectMotherhood
dc.titleMeeting text-to-text: familial encounters of love, care, and transformation in autistic life writing
dc.typeThesis / Dissertation
dc.type.qualificationlevelMasters
dc.type.qualificationlevelMA
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