Psychoanalysis,psychiatry and Modernist Literature

Two developments during the modernist period - the consolidation of psychiatry as a medical speciality and the emergence of psychoanalysis - affected the representation of madness in literature. They also influenced the ways psychic distress was experienced, narrated, and understood. Literature and criticism in turn affected the formation of the modern psychological self. Presenting detailed readings of both canonical and non-canonical modernists like Virginia Woolf and Emily Holmes Coleman, this book argues that modernist madness can be understood as experience, clinical discourse and cultural representation.

List of contents

Acknowledgements Introduction Modernism Psychiatry Madness Virginia Woolf Hayford Hall Beyond the Glass and The Shutter of Snow Conclusion Notes

About the author

KYLIE VALENTINE completed a PhD in Gender Studies at the University of Sydney

Summary

Two developments during the modernist period - the consolidation of psychiatry as a medical speciality and the emergence of psychoanalysis - affected the representation of madness in literature. They also influenced the ways psychic distress was experienced, narrated, and understood. Literature and criticism in turn affected the formation of the modern psychological self. Presenting detailed readings of both canonical and non-canonical modernists like Virginia Woolf and Emily Holmes Coleman, this book argues that modernist madness can be understood as experience, clinical discourse and cultural representation.

Additional text

'...[will] add greatly to our knowledge of this rich cultural moment. I would expect it to become a significant reference point for scholars working in this field' - Peter A. Nicholls, University of Sussex

Report

'...[will] add greatly to our knowledge of this rich cultural moment. I would expect it to become a significant reference point for scholars working in this field' - Peter A. Nicholls, University of Sussex

Product details

• Authors: K Valentine, K. Valentine
• Publisher: Palgrave UK
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 01.01.2003
• EAN: 9781349507375
• ISBN: 978-1-349-50737-5
• No. of pages: 232
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies; Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Medicine > Clinical medicine; Social sciences, law, business > Sociology > Sociological theories; B, Gender Studies, Psychoanalysis, Sociology, Psychiatry, Literature: history & criticism, Analytical & Jungian psychology, European Literature, Literature—History and criticism, Literary History, British literature, British and Irish Literature, Palgrave Literature & Performing Arts Collection, America—Literatures, North American Literature, Psychoanalytical & Freudian psychology