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Depiction of intellectual disability in fiction

Anupama Iyer is a specialist registrar in child psychiatry and learning disabilities at the Diana, Princess of Wales Children’s Hospital (Steelhouse Lane, Birmingham B4 6NH, UK. Email: nikanu{at}lycos.co.uk). Her research interests include autism, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and behavioural phenotypes.

I explore some of the ways in which intellectual disability (learning disability) is depicted in fiction. My premise is that literature both reflects and shapes societal attitudes to people in this vulnerable minority group. People with intellectual disabilities are seldom able to determine, confirm or counter narratives about themselves. This situation, in which the subject is fundamentally unable to participate in their representation, raises unique ethical considerations. I use examples from various English-language novels to discuss how subjective accounts, observable behaviours and physical attributes are all employed to characterise people with intellectual disabilities.