Consciousness, Literature and the Arts
Archive
Volume 9 Number 1, April 2008
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Phyllis Ferguson Bottomer. So Odd a Mixture. Along the Autistic Spectrum in Pride and Prejudice. Forewords by Tony Attwood and Eileen Sutherland. London and Philadelphia, PA: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2007. 207 pp. ISBN: 978-1-84310-499-5. Paperback: $19.95.
Reviewed by
University of Granada
Masterly overcoming the difficulties entailed by classics to be analyzed from an original perspective, Ferguson’s So Odd a Mixture proposes a genuinely innovative approach to the extensively studied Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Hence, by applying such unusual parameters in literary discussion as those of autism and functional disorders, namely Asperger’s syndrome, Ferguson’s study offers an original insight into the psychological traits of Austen’s characters, whose behaviour becomes hereby justified in terms of autistic patterns.
Inasmuch as it entails an absolutely ground-breaking strategy for the portrayal of an ineffective society, in view of its pervasive incapability of transcending conventionalisms, Ferguson’s theory situates Jane Austen as a real genius of character construction due to the minute accuracy with which the narrator creates complex and multidimensional human beings.
In her book, Ferguson provides a detailed account of the different traits in each character that can be traced within the autistic spectrum. Thereby, she discloses in front of the reader a microcosm of improper creatures who turn out to be altogether inefficient – when not patently bizarre and absurd – in a world where they remain permanently unfit.
Thus, we discover distressing creatures with severe problems to interact with the world around. This is, for instance, the case of a Fitzwilliam Darcy whose rudeness and arrogance appear, for the first time, as possible traits of autism rather than as the symptoms of an exacerbated ego. Another illuminating portrayal is Mr. Bennett’s. Conventionally considered by some critics as a philosopher of extraordinary wit and wisdom, the Bennett’s patriarch is now viewed as affected by the social handicaps involved by the autistic paradigm.
Likewise, in the case of the exaggeratedly loud-speaking Mrs. Bennett, Ferguson’s analysis depicts the reality of a woman whose mild autism is aggravated by her marriage to the more severely affected Mr. Bennett, whereas a rather passive and broadly inexpressive Miss Anne De Bourgh is hereby identified as merely a pathologically self-centered woman. While these creatures had been systematically associated by traditional scholarship to the stiffness and snobbism Austen would have chosen for her characters, Ferguson’s study breaks away from traditional approaches to unveil a strikingly different truth – that experienced by a series of brilliantly constructed characters self-isolated in the narrow island of their existence under the reality of autism disorders.
Along with the detailed study of all the characters in Austen’s novel, the author substantiates her book with solid theoretical fundaments in the first part of her volume. Even more interesting is the fact that this theoretical block in Ferguson’s work, though not excessively extensive, is clearly divided into two sections the reader – as explicitly indicated by the author herself – may choose to read or discard as a function of his own interests.
Thus, the first of these sections, conveniently entitled “Autistic Spectrum Disorders for Janeites”, deals with some of the central notions of autism that are essential in order to understand her interpretation of the novel. Whereas the former is mainly addressed to critics and literary scholars, a second section, Pride and Prejudice for Autism Specialists, locates the historical and socio-economic circumstances that constitute the background of both the narrative and the novel-writing. These are meant as a preliminary introduction for the more scientific analysis, from a medical-psychological perspective, of the pathologies described throughout the different chapters.
On the other hand, one of the final sections, “Happily Ever After?,” fuses the literary and the scientific in order to launch a prediction about the likely evolution of these autistic couples. Hence, on the basis of registered real-life cases with similar disorders, the author suggests a possible prognostication about the progress of these characters – had they transcended the imaginary borders.
Ferguson concludes her book by providing a coherent justification for the reading of Pride and Prejudice within the parameters of a reality many decades away from being detected. Accordingly, only Austen’s acute sensitivity and capacity of observation may account for her perception in her most immediate surroundings of those still non-classified features.
No doubt, Ferguson’s work opens up new vias for literary research, at the same time as it amply provides food for thought. In this regard, it inevitably leads us to consider other cases in which the autistic spectrum paradigm could be taken into account for literary interpretation. Concomitantly, it also poses the question, upon acceptance of this approach, about the narrator’s intentions when applying – whether consciously or not – those parameters. Certainly, a broad scope of socio-cultural and political implications emerges in order to interpret the rounds and abouts of a world inhabited by either pathologically or socially-impaired awkwards.