Aesthetics and rhetoric of neurodissidence

deconstructing normativity in contemporary literary studies

Abstract

The work Literary neurodiversity studies: current and future directions (2025), published by Palgrave Macmillan and authored by Bradley J. Irish, proposes a theoretical restructuring of literary studies under the neurodiversity paradigm. The author replaces the medical model of deficit with the concept of neurotypes, enabling the identification of atypical subjectivities in fiction without resorting to anachronistic diagnoses. The reviewed book examines neurodivergent characters and authors, emphasizing the agency and legitimacy of non-normative languages. By applying this methodology to classics such as Othello, Irish demonstrates that mental variation is constitutive of all textual production, orienting the field toward neurologically just academic practices.