Literary Masking and Unmasking: Reading Neuromixed Love Stories from an Autistic Collective Autoethnographic Literary Approach

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

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Bertilsdotter Rosqvist, H. & Nygren, A. (2025). Literary Masking and Unmasking: Reading Neuromixed Love Stories from an Autistic Collective Autoethnographic Literary Approach. Autism in Adulthood. https://doi.org/10.1177/25739581251378264

Publication date: 27 Sep 2025 Added to AutiHub: 4 Jul 2026 Type: Article Article language: English
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Authors

Publication authors
2
Publication authors identified as autistic
2 / 2 (100.0%)
  1. Hannah Bertilsdotter Rosqvist *
  2. Anna Nygren *

Abstract

This article investigates neuromixed love stories in novels that include a named autistic character, are written by autistic authors, or have characters who have been named by paratexts as autistic. In the article, we invoke a collective autoethnographic literary approach, using our reading diaries or letters to each other as source material. From an autistic perspective we explore neurotypical heterosexual neuromixed love stories and autistic counter love stories focusing on how neurotypical and autistic characters are represented. Our main findings are two dichotomies and two happy endings. In neurotypical heterosexual neuromixed love stories, the dichotomy of a female autistic grotesque and the male neurotypical savior is central where the happy ending is curing or masking autism, upholding both heteronormativity and neuronormativity. In autistic counter love stories, the happy ending is rather framed as unmasking and founding a way of life outside of neuro- and heteronormativity for both parties. Community Brief Why is this topic important Autistic people are often told that they can’t communicate their experiences to non-autistic people. A way to counter this assumption is to show that autistic experiences can be communicated from autistic perspectives. What is the purpose of this article? This article looks at love stories between an autistic character and a non-autistic character in novels. The novels include a named autistic character, are written by autistic authors, or have characters with autistic characteristics. It looks at the stories using a collective autoethnographic literary approach. This means the article’s autistic authors wrote reading diaries or letters to each other and then analyzed their own writings. What do the authors suggest? The authors found that the love stories focused on straight, neurotypical relationships as being normal, even when the story’s author was autistic. Female autistic characters acted similar to nonhuman/non-woman monsters. They did not seem to be able to experience normal feelings. Male neurotypical characters acted like “saviors,” who are able to “cure” the female autists, normalizing demands of masking. What do the authors think should happen in the future? The authors think that autistic people need to be represented in different ways in literature. They also think that these autistic characters need to express happy endings and make unmasking a path for autistic happiness. How will this study help autistic people now and in the future? It is important for both autistic and non-autistic readers to be aware of how autistic people are represented in literature. This study brings awareness of a gap in how autistic people are represented in romance stories, which might encourage writers to communicate more nuanced autistic experiences.

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: 2 Oct 2026 17:07.

Cited references
51
With a DOI
33
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
16
9 / 51 (17.6%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
2 / 51 (3.9%)
References with detected author names
49 / 51 (96.1%)
Without detected author names
2
Without a structured title
2
Without a stable identifier
16
References with raw author names still to review
2
References with external metadata lookup issues
0
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
72
From DOI or external metadata
72
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
2
22 / 72 (30.6%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 50 / 72 (69.4%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
13 / 72 (18.1%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 13 / 22 (59.1%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 12 / 70 (17.1%).
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