Shakespeare, Neurological Identity, and Early Modern Neurodiversity Studies: A Neurological Approach to ‘Character’

This publication is included in the Autistic Autism Scholarship Project. two authors of this publication are identified as autistic in the project.

About the autistic author marker

Marks, M. & Irish, B. J. (2024). Shakespeare, Neurological Identity, and Early Modern Neurodiversity Studies: A Neurological Approach to ‘Character’. Shakespeare, 22(1), 1-24. https://doi.org/10.1080/17450918.2024.2444937

Publication date: 27 Dec 2024 Added to AutiHub: 8 Aug 2026 Type: Article Article language: English

This publication is integrated into AutiHub through:

Authors

Publication authors
2
Publication authors identified as autistic
2 / 2 (100.0%)

Abstract

A new subfield has begun to develop in scholarship of the English Renaissance: early modern neurodiversity studies. This essay, written by two scholars who identify as autistic, presents a neurologically informed approach to Shakespearean ‘character’, by theorising the analysis of neurological identity—that is, the characteristic cognitive, emotional, and sensory styles of a particular literary figure. More specifically, we develop the concept of neurotypes to help describe certain kinds of cognitive, emotional, and sensory characteristics, suggesting that they can function as a non-diagnostic way of accounting both for points of contact between the neurological past and present and for neurological identity more generally. This approach not only helps uncover neurodivergence in Shakespeare’s plays, but also shows more broadly how attention to the entanglement of cognitive, emotional, and sensory functioning can elucidate how his characters would have been understood by early modern subjects, and how they might be understood today in light of our growing awareness of human neurodiversity.

Bibliography cited by this reference

Cited references are imported from external metadata sources when they are available. The list may be partial.

Cited bibliography overview

These indicators describe the bibliography cited by this publication. An author name is counted each time it appears in one cited reference, so the same person can be counted more than once. Names not yet linked to an author already present in AutiHub are treated as unknown, not as non-autistic. Last computed: 28 Oct 2026 01:01.

Cited references
96
With a DOI
57
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
39
15 / 96 (15.6%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
1 / 96 (1.0%)
References with detected author names
95 / 96 (99.0%)
Without detected author names
1
Without a structured title
0
Without a stable identifier
32
References with raw author names still to review
0
References with external metadata lookup issues
1
These indicators apply to cited references displayed on this page, after technical duplicates have been merged. A reference without a DOI can still support author statistics when a title and author names are available.
Author names detected in the cited bibliography
116
From DOI or external metadata
116
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
0
24 / 116 (20.7%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 92 / 116 (79.3%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
23 / 116 (19.8%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 23 / 24 (95.8%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 14 / 97 (14.4%).
  1. Callus, Ivan , Lauri-Lucente, Gloria , Parey, Armelle , Roblin, Isabelle (2024). The Persistence of Character . E-rea, 21.2. OpenEdition.
    Type: Other DOI: 10.4000/11w9c OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W28515869
    OpenAlex
  2. Allestree Richard. (1694). The Government of the Thoughts . The Government of the Thoughts.
    Type: Other
    Crossref
  3. Hanna Bertilsdotter Rosqvist *Autistic author. Learn more… , Anna Stenning *Autistic author. Learn more… , Nicholas Chown *Autistic author. Learn more… (2020). Introduction . In Neurodiversity Studies (pp. 1-11). Routledge.
    Type: Book chapter DOI: 10.4324/9780429322297-1 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W4234970737
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  4. Wood, David Houston , Hobgood, Allison P., 1977- (2020). Recovering Disability in Early Modern England . Ohio State University Press.
    OpenAlex
  5. Armin Robert. (1600). Foole Vpon Foole . Foole Vpon Foole.
    Type: Other
    Crossref
  6. (1400). Twelfth Night . Twelfth Night. Arden Shakespeare.
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  7. W. J. Turner (2013). A History of Intelligence and "Intellectual Disability": The Shaping of Psychology in Early Modern Europe . Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, 68(2), 302-305. Oxford University Press (OUP).
    OpenAlex
  8. Armin Robin. (1609). The History of the Two Maids of More-clacke . The History of the Two Maids of More-clacke.
    Type: Other
    Crossref
  9. Lindsey Row-Heyveld (2018). Dissembling Disability in Early Modern English Drama . Springer International Publishing.
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  10. Dympna Callaghan (2006). Do Characters Have Souls? Shakespeare Studies, 34, 41.
    Type: Article OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W249878946
    Crossref OpenAlex
  11. Bartlett Bridget. (2022). “An Idiot of the Newest Cut”: Disability and Social Mobility in Lyly’s Mother Bombie . Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies, 22(4), 1.
    Type: Other
    Crossref
  12. Loftis Sonya Freeman (2014). Disability, Health, and Happiness in the Shakespearean Body . Routledge.
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  13. Ingeborg M. Goessl , J. W. Smeed (1986). The Theophrastan "Character": The History of a Literary Genre . German Studies Review, 9(3), 630. JSTOR.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.2307/1429911 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W560570394
    OpenAlex
  14. Jes Battis (2019). "No Crime to Be Bashful": Social Anxiety in the Drama of Margaret Cavendish . Mosaic: an interdisciplinary critical journal, 52(2), 167-184. Project MUSE.
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  15. Nicholas R. Helms (2022). Seeing Brains . In Redefining Disability (pp. 152-159). BRILL.
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  16. Kinney, Arthur F. 1933-2021 (2011). The Oxford Handbook of Shakespeare . Oxford University Press.
    OpenAlex
  17. Pilar Martínez Benedí , Ralph James Savarese (2024). Herman Melville and Neurodiversity, or Why Hunt Difference with Harpoons? Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  18. Allison P. Hobgood , David Houston Wood (2009). Introduction, "Disabled Shakespeares" . Disability Studies Quarterly, 29(4). The Ohio State University Libraries.
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  19. Bérubé Michael. (2016). The Secret Life of Stories: From Don Quixote to Harry Potter, How Understanding Intellectual Disability Transforms the Way We Read . Choice Reviews Online, 53(11), 53-4693-53-4693. American Library Association.
    Crossref OpenAlex
  20. Allison Hobgood (2021). Beholding Disability in Renaissance England . University of Michigan Press.
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  21. David Houston Wood (2011). Shakespeare and Disability Studies . Literature Compass, 8(5), 280-290. Wiley.
    OpenAlex
  22. C F Goodey (2004). “Foolishness” in Early Modern Medicine and the Concept of Intellectual Disability . Medical History, 48(3), 289-310. Cambridge University Press (CUP).
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  23. Lara Bovilsky (2021). Poor Painted Shadows: "Non-Shakespearean" Characterization in Shakespeare . Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies, 21(2), 178-209. Project MUSE.
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  24. Desmet Christy. (1993). Reading Shakespeare's Characters: Rhetoric, Ethics, and Identity . Choice Reviews Online, 30(09), 30-4845-30-4845. American Library Association.
    Crossref OpenAlex
  25. Boyce Benjamin. (1967). The Theophrastan Character in England to 1642 . The Theophrastan Character in England to 1642.
    Type: Other
    Crossref
  26. Alice Equestri (2019). ‘This cold night will turn us all to fools and madmen’: Feste, Lear’s Fool and the border between ‘idiocy’ and mental illness . Cahiers Élisabéthains: A Journal of English Renaissance Studies, 99(1), 23-32. SAGE Publications.
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  27. Helen Wilcox , Gail Kern Paster , Katherine Rowe , Mary Floyd-Wilson (2006). Reading the Early Modern Passions: Essays in the Cultural History of Emotion . The Modern Language Review, 101(4), 1089. JSTOR.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.2307/20467050 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2083191366
    OpenAlex
  28. Brathwaite Richard. (1631). Whimzies, or a New Cast of Characters . Whimzies, or a New Cast of Characters.
    Type: Other
    Crossref
  29. David Houston Wood (2015). Disability, Health, and Happiness in the Shakespearean Body . Disability Studies Quarterly, 35(4). The Ohio State University Libraries.
    OpenAlex
  30. Justin Shaw (2019). ‘Rub Him About the Temples’: Othello, Disability, and the Failures of Care . Early Theatre, 22(2). Early Theatre.
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  31. Carolyn Ogburn (2016). Imagining autism: fiction and stereotypes on the spectrum . Disability & Society, 31(9), 1311-1313. Informa UK Limited.
    OpenAlex
  32. Casuabon Isaac. (1592). Theophrasti Characteres Ethici . Theophrasti Characteres Ethici.
    Type: Other
    Crossref
  33. Kirsten Gibson (2017). Gender and Song in Early Modern England . Folklore, 128(2), 208-209. Informa UK Limited.
    OpenAlex
  34. Desai Adhaar Noor. (2021). In Publicity and the Early Modern Stage: People Made Public . In Publicity and the Early Modern Stage: People Made Public, 119.
    Type: Other
    Crossref
  35. Laura Seymour *Autistic author. Learn more… (2024). Copying not Diagnosing: The Case of Hugh Blair of Borgue . Disability Studies Quarterly, 43(2). The Ohio State University Libraries.
    AutiHub · Autistic Autism Scholarship Project Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  36. David Houston Wood (2017). Staging Disability in Renaissance Drama . In A New Companion to Renaissance Drama (pp. 487-500). Wiley.
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  37. Loftis (2016). Imagining autism: fiction and stereotypes on the spectrum . Choice Reviews Online, 53(10), 53-4284-53-4284. American Library Association.
    OpenAlex
  38. Desmet Christy. (2006). The Persistence of Character . Shakespeare Studies, 34, 46.
    Type: Other
    Crossref
  39. Anderson, Susan (2020). Performing Disability in Early Modern English Drama . Springer International Publishing.
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  40. Jeffrey R. Wilson (2017). The Trouble with Disability in Shakespeare Studies . Disability Studies Quarterly, 37(2). The Ohio State University Libraries.
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  41. Desmet Christy. (2011). The Oxford Handbook of Shakespeare . The Oxford Handbook of Shakespeare, 536.
    Type: Other
    Crossref
  42. Julia Miele Rodas (2018). Autistic Disturbances . University of Michigan Press.
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  43. D. Whyte (1882). “Politeuphuia, wit's common-wealth” . Notes and Queries, s6-VI(145), 298-298. Oxford University Press (OUP).
    OpenAlex
  44. Earle John. (1628). Micro-Cosmographie . Micro-Cosmographie.
    Type: Other
    Crossref
  45. Aaron Kunin (2019). Character as Form . Bloomsbury Academic.
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  46. Katie Ebner‐Landy (2022). Moral Instruction by Bad Example: The First Latin Translations of Theophrastus’ Characters☆ . Renaissance Studies, 36(5), 668-685. Wiley.
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  47. Alice Equestri (2020). Shakespeare and the Construction of Intellectual Disability: The Case of Touchstone . Disability Studies Quarterly, 40(4). The Ohio State University Libraries.
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  48. Alexander S. Liddie (2019). The History of the two Maids of More-clacke . In An Old-Spelling, Critical Edition of The History of the Two Maids of More-Clacke (pp. 103-221). Routledge.
    Type: Book chapter DOI: 10.4324/9780429401886-9 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2955754660
    OpenAlex
  49. Samuel Fallon (2021). Formal Men: On Parody and Character . Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies, 21(2), 26-53. Project MUSE.
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  50. Alice Equestri (2021). Literature and Intellectual Disability in Early Modern England . Literature and Intellectual Disability in Early Modern England: Folly, Law and Medicine, 1500-1640. Routledge.
    Crossref OpenAlex
  51. Gail Kern Paster (2004). Humoring the Body . University of Chicago Press.
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  52. MARDY PHILIPPIAN (2020). The Book of Common Prayer, Theory of Mind, and Autism in Early Modern England . In Recovering Disability in Early Modern England (pp. 150-166). Ohio State University Press.
    Type: Book chapter DOI: 10.2307/j.ctv17260bx.14 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W3092236438
    OpenAlex
  53. Folkerth Wes. (2021). Performing Disability in Early Modern English Drama . Performing Disability in Early Modern English Drama, 141.
    Type: Other
    Crossref
  54. Bradley J. Irish *Autistic author. Learn more… (2024). Jealousy in Early Modern England . Studies in Philology, 121(3), 432-463. Project MUSE.
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  55. Goodey C. F. (2011). A History of Intelligence and ‘Intellectual Disability’: The Shaping of Psychology in Early Modern Europe . A History of Intelligence and ‘Intellectual Disability’: The Shaping of Psychology in Early Modern Europe.
    Type: Other
    Crossref
  56. Gouch Charles Edward. (1909). The Life and Characters of Sir Thomas Overbury . The Life and Characters of Sir Thomas Overbury.
    Type: Other
    Crossref
  57. Katherine Schaap Williams (2021). Unfixable Forms: Disability, Performance, and the Early Modern English Theater . Project Muse (Johns Hopkins University).
    Type: Article OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W3175368467
    Crossref OpenAlex
  58. Greenough Chester Noyes. (1947). A Bibliography of the Theophrastan Character in English . A Bibliography of the Theophrastan Character in English.
    Type: Other
    Crossref
  59. Hall Joseph. (1608). Characters of Vertues and Vices . Characters of Vertues and Vices.
    Type: Other
    Crossref
  60. Sonya Freeman Loftis *Autistic author. Learn more… (2021). Shakespeare and Disability Studies . Shakespeare and Disability Studies.
    Type: Article OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W3191136124
    Crossref OpenAlex
  61. Harris Tim. (2021). In Stereotypes and Stereotyping in Early Modern England: Puritans, Papists and Projectors . In Stereotypes and Stereotyping in Early Modern England: Puritans, Papists and Projectors, 35.
    Type: Other
    Crossref
  62. Sonya Freeman Loftis and Lisa Ulevich (2014). Obsession/Rationality/Agency: Autistic Shakespeare .
    OpenAlex
  63. Healey John. (1616). Epictetus Manuall, Cebes Table, Theophrastus Characters . Epictetus Manuall, Cebes Table, Theophrastus Characters.
    Type: Other
    Crossref
  64. Heetderks Angela. (2014). Gender and Song in Early Modern England . Gender and Song in Early Modern England, 63.
    Type: Other
    Crossref
  65. Henderson Olivia. (2022). “Like A Dull Actor Now I Have Forgot My Part”: Coriolanus and Shakespearean Autism . Shakespeare Studies, 50, 126.
    Type: Other
    Crossref
  66. Whitburn, Benjamin , Michalko, Rod (2019). The Routledge Handbook of Disability Studies . Routledge.
    Crossref OpenAlex
  67. Jean Robertson , Benjamin Boyce (1948). The Theophrastan Character in England to 1642 . The Modern Language Review, 43(4), 529. JSTOR.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.2307/3717937 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W4230459481
    OpenAlex
  68. Hobgood Allison P. (2013). Recovering disability in early modern England . Choice Reviews Online, 51(04), 51-1956-51-1956. American Library Association.
    Crossref OpenAlex
  69. Irish Bradley J. (2025). The Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Literature . The Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Literature.
    Type: Other
    Crossref
  70. Paster Gail Kern (2005). Reading the Early Modern Passions: Essays in the Cultural History of Emotion . Choice Reviews Online, 42(08), 42-4488-42-4488. American Library Association.
    Crossref OpenAlex
  71. Lake Peter. (2021). In Stereotypes and Stereotyping in Early Modern England: Puritans, Papists and Projectors . In Stereotypes and Stereotyping in Early Modern England: Puritans, Papists and Projectors, 62.
    Type: Other
    Crossref
  72. Nicholas Ling , Bodenham, John (1597). Politeuphuia, Wits Common wealth . Politeuphuia, Wits Common wealth.
    Type: Other OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W7051977499
    Crossref OpenAlex
  73. Love, Genevieve (2019). Early Modern Theatre and the Figure of Disability . Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.
    Crossref OpenAlex
  74. Daniel Glenn (2022). Neuroqueer Heresies: Notes on the Neurodiversity Paradigm, Autistic Empowerment, and Postnormal Possibilities . World Futures, 78(5), 339-341. Informa UK Limited.
    OpenAlex
  75. Peter Lake (2022). On thinking (historically) with stereotypes, or the puritan origins of anti-puritanism . In Stereotypes and stereotyping in early modern England. Manchester University Press.
    OpenAlex
  76. Maynwaringe Everard. (1683). Health, Vigour, and Long Life . Health, Vigour, and Long Life.
    Type: Other
    Crossref
  77. Tim Harris (2022). Religious and national stereotyping and prejudice in seventeenth-century England . In Stereotypes and stereotyping in early modern England. Manchester University Press.
    OpenAlex
  78. Murgado-Willard Kelli. (2024). Neurodiverse Couple Therapy: A Practical Guide to Brain-Informed Care . Neurodiverse Couple Therapy: A Practical Guide to Brain-Informed Care.
    Type: Other
    Crossref
  79. Overbury Thomas. (1614). A Wife, Now the Widdow . A Wife, Now the Widdow.
    Type: Other
    Crossref
  80. Overbury Thomas. (1618). His Wife With Additions . His Wife With Additions.
    Type: Other
    Crossref
  81. Philippian Mardy. (2013). Recovering Disability in Early Modern England . Recovering Disability in Early Modern England, 150.
    Type: Other
    Crossref
  82. Secmezsoy-Urquhart, Jessica (2019). Off Evere Full that in this Regeone Duellis: The Neurodiverse Natural Court Fool’s Vital Relationship with Scottish Stewart and British Stuart Rulers, 1488-1649’. MSc thesis . Off Evere Full that in this Regeone Duellis: The Neurodiverse Natural Court Fool’s Vital Relationship with Scottish Stewart and British Stuart Rulers, 1488-1649’. MSc thesis.
    Type: Other
    Crossref
  83. Laura Seymour *Autistic author. Learn more… (2022). The Uses of Anxiety: Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners (1666) . Bunyan Studies, 26, 8.
    Type: Article OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W7015959442
    Crossref OpenAlex
  84. Laura Seymour *Autistic author. Learn more… (2024). Shakespeare and Neurodiversity . Shakespeare and Neurodiversity.
    Type: Other
    Crossref
  85. Anna Stenning *Autistic author. Learn more… (2024). Narrating the Many Autisms: Identity, Agency, Mattering .
    Type: Book OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W6983587529
    Crossref OpenAlex
  86. Laura Seymour *Autistic author. Learn more… (2025). Critical Neurodiversity Studies: Divergent Textualities in Literature and Culture . Critical Neurodiversity Studies: Divergent Textualities in Literature and Culture.
    Type: Other
    Crossref
  87. Nick Walker *Autistic author. Learn more… (2021). Neuroqueer heresies: notes on the neurodiversity paradigm, autistic empowerment, and postnormal possibilities . Neuroqueer heresies: Notes on the neurodiversity paradigm, autistic empowerment, and postnormal possibilities.
    Type: Other OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W7011697317
    Crossref OpenAlex
  88. Smeed J. W. (1985). The Theophrastan ‘Character’: The History of a Literary Genre . The Theophrastan ‘Character’: The History of a Literary Genre.
    Type: Other
    Crossref
  89. Stephens John. (1615). Essayes and Characters . Essayes and Characters.
    Type: Other
    Crossref