From a Certain Point of View: The Portrayal of Autism in Mark Haddon's "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time"

From a Certain Point of View: The Portrayal of Autism in Mark Haddon's "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time"

JFL, 261A

This paper investigates the development of Mark Haddon’s novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, a contemporary murder mystery novel featuring an autistic central character. The novel was well received; in 2003 it earned several awards including the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize and Whitbread Book of the Year, and in 2004 it placed top ten in YALSA Best Books for Young Adults. Critics attribute the book’s success to Haddon’s insightful portrayal of an autistic central character, while Haddon himself has stated that he wishes the book wasn’t held up as an example of an autistic narrative, and that “good literature is always about peeling labels off” (markhaddon.com). This paper aims to investigate whether the novel can be considered an autistic narrative, in spite of Haddon’s claims.