Sunday, November 4, 2012

Response to "Autism and Rhetoric"


            In their article “Autism and Rhetoric”, Paul Heilker and Melanie Yergeau argue that autism spectrum disorders are themselves rhetorics. Heilker and Yergeau describe it “as a way of being in the world through language”. Heilker tells his side of the story through his life, as his son is autistic and this gives us a good view into the rhetoric that is autism. Yergeau lives with Asperger’s Syndrome and gives us a first hand account into the rhetoric.
            I think that this article is similar to Elizabeth Wardle’s article “Identity, Authority, and Learning to Write in New Workplaces” in that the idea of autism as a rhetoric brings up the idea of identity which Wardle explains in detail. Heilker and Yergeau both do a great job making their identities clear which really opens the article up to really show the community that grows around autistics.
            I found this article more interesting that any of the other articles we’ve read in this class. It’s a really interesting way to look at autism, which I find interesting in itself. Reading about Eli was great and it seemed as if he was in his own, imaginative world, which is really cool to think about. 

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