https://doi.org/10.67147/literariness.v1i3.055
Radical Reframing of (Dis)Ability: Deconstructing Autistic Stereotypes and Ableist Normativity in A Boy Called Po
ANAGHA J
Third Year UG Student
Department of English
Catholicate College, Pathanamthitta, Kerala
ANU FRANCIS
Assistant Professor
Department of English
Catholicate College, Pathanamthitta, Kerala
Abstract: Cinematic depictions of disability often succumb to the reductive tropes of the ‘medical model,’ which treats disability as a deficit to be cured. However, the emergence of disability studies challenged this paradigm, with the ‘social model’, differentiating disability as a socially mediated experience rather than a purely biological condition. This paper examines John Asher’s less explored film, A Boy Called Po (2016), as a potent counter-narrative that destabilises such dominant epistemologies of disability, with a multi-faceted exploration of neurodivergent experiences. Moving beyond conventional ‘saviour’ narratives, the film foregrounds the evolving relationship between a widowed father, David, and his autistic son, Po as they navigate the shared trauma of maternal loss. The study argues that the film produces an alternative visual and affective economy, what may be termed a ‘counter-visuality,’ that resists the stigmatising gaze and invites spectators into Po’s perceptual world, most notably through the imaginative ‘Land of Color.’ The paper further voices against the institutional failures that perpetuate exclusion by privileging normality over recognition of diversity. The close reading of the film employing the key tenets of disability theory reveals that the narrative departs from the hegemonic discourses of pity and ableism to reclaim the protagonist’s agency and subjectivity.
Keywords: Disability Theory, Medical Model, Social Model, Neurodivergence, Ableism
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