ABSTRACT

This chapter demonstrates how the 'other' texts are relevant to perspectives about special educational needs(SEN) via their imagined narratives. There exist numerous guides to SEN conditions and advice for education practitioners. A theme that arises in relation to SEN-defined pupils in school settings is that of child abuse. The chapter provides useful justifications for adding the reading of relevant fiction to that of non-fiction texts in relation to developing a critical and enlightened approach to SEN-categorised themes. Fiction has great value in presenting detailed and individualised cases of disturbed states of mind and body. D.H. Lawrence, a writer, who has contributed both non-fictionally and fictionally and in fact to thematics associated with SEN. In relation to vulnerability, an important SEN theme, Stevie is led to his own destruction as a result of his literal-minded sense of social justice. Here SEN issues surface in relation to emotional and physical consequences of being abused, as disturbingly shown in the current Rotherham case.