Autism Awareness Month: Kai Yakimenka and Victorian Literature
Andaluna Malki | April 6, 2023
Warren Wilson College (WWC) is a place of many unique interests. Kai Yakimenka is in his third year at WWC and is an English major. Yakimenka joins our interview with seven various Greek and Victorian literature pieces.
“The ones that I brought are distinctly Victorian,” Yakimenka said. “Also, I wanted one Edwardian book primarily because I cannot pass up an opportunity to talk about E.M. Forster because he is my favorite.”
Yakimenka is incredibly knowledgeable in specific periods of history from the 1800s to the early 1900s.
“[Edwardian] refers to the period of King Edwards's rule right after the death of Queen Victoria,” Yakimenka said. “So that's 1901 to about 1915 or 1901 to about the beginning of World War One, 1914. The way that we categorize these specific periods is really bizarre because the people in that era weren't thinking of themselves as Victorians. They just thought, ‘oh, we're living?’”
Special interests in autistic people are not easily pinned down to a distinguishable point in their lives, but Yakimenka remembers enjoying Greek mythology and Victorian novels from an early age.
“I read a vast amount of Victorian novels then,” Yakimenka said. “I obviously had to revisit them now because, you know, I wasn't reading analytically when I was 12. I was going through “Dracula” after receiving training in the English department, you notice so much more, and you trace down vast thematic undercurrents that are happening there.”
Yakimenka’s first language is Russian, allowing him to read his favorite books in two separate languages.
“I have like a vast amount of Russian editions of Charles Dickens,” Yakimenka said. “I still have my copy of “Dracula” that I read in Russian. And when I was 12, I had an enormous amount of dog-eared pages. When I went through it, after rereading “Dracula” in English for my vampire class last semester, I realized that I highlighted basically the same things that I was highlighting when I was 12.”
Yakimenka spending his past time reading allowed him to feel a lifeline. He is fascinated with getting a peek inside the life from the past just by reading.
“It's so easy to trace down specific cultural themes that were happening at the time of Victorian literature,” Yakimenka said. “That's why it's so enticing to go through Victorian novels in particular, and just think, oh, this is what's happening with class, race, gender or sexuality. Even if the author wasn't thinking about it, they were just trying to portray a picture of society at the time.”
Yakimenka’s autism, while creating obstacles in sensory and social settings, has allowed him to experience immense joy and comfort in his interests and interactions with literature.
“I'm willing to read and write about these things for as long as possible,” Yakimenka said. “I plan to pursue a graduate degree and teaching position later on because reading about this and talking about this is one of the most fulfilling things I can imagine. And I think that's why a lot of autistic or otherwise neurodivergent individuals are such incredible professors. It's because they're so deeply passionate.”
Yakimenka feels deeply connected to his identity of being autistic and is passionate about not portraying autism as “a tragedy or a superpower” and the harmful use of first-person language such as “child with autism.”
“They think that it's just baggage that we can kind of detach ourselves from that we would otherwise be like normal, if we just stepped away from labeling ourselves as such, which is not true because again, like I am autistic, first and foremost, and it defines my identity,” Yakimenka said. “There's nothing wrong with that.”
One of Yakimenka’s main enthusiasms is E.M. Forster’s novel “Maurice,” originally written around 1913 but published in 1971. The novel follows middle-class man Maurice Hall and multiple gay romantic ventures. The novel is acclaimed for its happy ending, an outstanding statement in literature and media even today.
“The issue is that since the happy ending was completed, the novel virtually became unpublishable,” Yakimenka said. “If it was a suicide pact story, if it was something tragic and dramatic with like every gay character novel dying, that could have been published because it would have been perceived as a cautionary tale.”
“Maurice” also deals with class struggles and boldly states about Edwardian society's monetary values.
“By the end of the novel, Maurice falls in love with a working-class individual,” Yakimenka said. “Alec is a gamekeeper at Maurice’s ex-boyfriend's estate. It's messy, but it's so beautiful. So this middle-class individual who defies basically societal expectations, he basically gives up his career, his station, and his family and gets his happy ending because of it.”
Yakimenka is also invested in Ancient Greek works such as the tragedian Euripides.
“The way that Ancient Greek literature plays out in my special interests is likewise incredible,” Yakimenka said. “It's such an interesting range of interests from like the 19th century to archaic and Ancient Greece. It's so funny to talk about this because ‘oh, I really love 19th-century literature.’ And then you hit them with Ancient Greece.”
Plays in Ancient Greek were put on during festivals dedicated to Dionysus, the god of wine and ecstasy from the Greco-Roman religion. One of the prominent figures in Yakimenka’s interests is Euripides, who composed around the 5th century BCE in Athens, Greece.
“‘The Bacchae’ is probably one of the most well-known plays of Euripides,” Yakimenka said. “It contains such an interesting portrayal of Dionysus in particular because he's portrayed as a foreigner. Anyone who is a foreigner in the Greek's eyes is a barbarian. That's where the word comes from. Basically, if you're not Greek, then you're something Other.”
Yakimenka is particularly enthralled with the play’s elements of defying the typical norms of Athenian Society and animalistic violence.
“It's a really bloody play,” Yakimenka said. “I mean, people get torn apart. People should read it. I think people should definitely read it. It's really fascinating, even if it's just for the gore aspect. I mean, a head assembled on a staff is a really cool image.”
To those who are looking to get into Victorian literature, Yakimenka highly recommends Oscar Wilde.
“He is amazing, and I love him,” Yakimenka said. “Oscar Wilde has such an interesting range of written works because he only has one novel. He has a variety of plays. He has a bunch of short stories and a lot of poetry. Some really significant essays, too. “The Picture of Dorian Gray” is fascinating from an incredible amount of perspectives, particularly a gothic one. And it's short, it's sweet. It's gay. The language is just delicious and lush and overwhelming.”
Yakimenka is also passionate about the modern portrayal of Victorian society not being as accurate as it indeed was.
“We have a very warped perception about the Victorians too because we consider them, you know, like, prim and repressed, and proper and respectable,” Yakimenka said. “And that was definitely the cultural expectation, right? That was where the social rules kind of were lying. But that's also so untrue. And so neglectful of the diversity of people living in Victorian London and the diversity of not only identity but also ideas.”
Thomas Hardy’s “Tess of the d’Urbervilles” is recommended to those looking for an extremely vivid and outstanding image of Victorian society.
“He was so radical, not without mistakes, errors, or weird things,” Yakimenka said. “And because it's impossible to get a completely perfect Victorian novel without any weirdness happening. “Tess of the d’Urbevilles” is about a woman wronged. It ruffled a lot of feathers.”
Yakimenka’s relationship with the classroom is a nearly symbiotic one. The role of being a student or teacher allows him to securely express himself with his interests being academically involved.
“I am absolutely certain that people consider me irritating, and I am kind of okay with that because a lot of autistic people experience the same thing,” Yakimenka said. “Especially when they are talking about something that they love, we have such a limited notion of social interaction that we consider sharing our interests to be rude.”
Yakimenka’s obstacles can be prevalent, but he finds strength in representing himself in assignments.
“It is wonderful to my interests are distinctly tied to academics, and I am very lucky in that,” Yakimenka said. “I am sure that people whose interests are not related to academics really struggle with fulfilling certain tasks that are required of them in the world of academia. If I am writing about something I love, I will not be contained by page count, to the dismay of my professors Jamie Ridenhour and Paula Garrett.”