In this episode of Autistica, Matt and Angela are joined by Shakespeare scholar Dr. Sonya Freeman Loftis to explore how Shakespeare’s plays connect with autistic experiences—from emotional intensity to characters whose traits feel deeply neurodivergent.
🎧 What You’ll Learn
- Autistic-coded heroes – How characters like Hamlet, Coriolanus, Othello, and King Lear embody autistic themes such as moral intensity, social disconnect, and emotional overload.
- Disability lens on the Bard – Dr. Loftis shares her journey into studying Shakespeare through a disability perspective, and the rise of autism-friendly and relaxed performances at venues like The Globe.
- Bottom-up processing & inertia – Why lines like “To be or not to be” can feel like expressions of autistic inertia, and how Shakespeare’s language structure invites bottom-up processing that resonates with neurodivergent minds.
- Otherness & ableism – How portrayals of “the outsider” in Shakespeare’s works reflect societal treatment of autistic people, and where ableist framing still appears.
- Shakespeare as therapy – From prison programs to elder care, and even modern neurodivergent Shakespeare meetups, his works offer catharsis and connection.
- Was Shakespeare neurodivergent? – Considering his prolific, atypical perspective on language and emotion as possible indicators of neurodivergence.
Featured Guest: Dr. Sonya Freeman Loftis
Dr. Sonya Freeman Loftis is a Shakespeare scholar, disability studies researcher, and author whose work explores how literature intersects with neurodivergence and lived experience.
🔗 Explore Dr. Loftis’s Academic Profile on Academia.edu
📖 William Shakespeare Was on the Autism Spectrum (Asperger’s Syndrome) – Read on ResearchGate
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