Women and madness in SF: Difference between revisions
(adding some notes, see also) |
(→Gendered uses of madness: more on madness in patriarchy) |
||
| Line 4: | Line 4: | ||
Women characters particularly prone to be "mad"? Use of madness to punish female social/sexual transgression? | Women characters particularly prone to be "mad"? Use of madness to punish female social/sexual transgression? | ||
Feminine madness versus masculine madness: obsession (e.g., Shelley's Dr. Frankenstein) treated almost as not madness at all, but a drive; murderous rage similarly treated as temporary, not a mental illness. Men's madness is strengthening; women's madness weakens them, languishing (relationship to multiple representations of women dying of tuberculosis, a disease which in literature shows a strange affinity for young attractive female characters). But see Heroes/Niki; Millennium/Frank Black & Lara Means; X-Files/Mulder). Is madness for Niki weakness? Social punishment for an out-of-control / strong female character? Can she integrate? | Feminine madness versus masculine madness: obsession (e.g., Shelley's Dr. Frankenstein) treated almost as not madness at all, but a drive; murderous rage similarly treated as temporary, not a mental illness. The nervous maladies of women; hysteria; numerous representations of women recovering, always on the verge of slipping back into madness. Men's madness is strengthening; women's madness weakens them, languishing (relationship to multiple representations of women dying of tuberculosis, a disease which in literature shows a strange affinity for young attractive female characters). But see Heroes/Niki; Millennium/Frank Black & Lara Means; X-Files/Mulder). Is madness for Niki weakness? Social punishment for an out-of-control / strong female character? Can she integrate? | ||
How much is madness a reasonable response to unreasonable conditions? e.g., Yellow Wallpaper; Friedan / Feminine Mystique. Patriarchy as literally maddening. | How much is madness a reasonable response to unreasonable conditions? e.g., Yellow Wallpaper; Friedan / Feminine Mystique. Patriarchy as literally maddening. Madness as depression; social conditions of women as more likely to suffer severe depression & attempt suicide; social outlets for men to channel emotions into rage (and social outlets for them to express rage; e.g., military; sports) | ||
==SF and other art forms== | ==SF and other art forms== | ||
Revision as of 11:08, 6 February 2007
- Some notes on the topic; need to be fleshed out; what else is missing?
Gendered uses of madness
Women characters particularly prone to be "mad"? Use of madness to punish female social/sexual transgression?
Feminine madness versus masculine madness: obsession (e.g., Shelley's Dr. Frankenstein) treated almost as not madness at all, but a drive; murderous rage similarly treated as temporary, not a mental illness. The nervous maladies of women; hysteria; numerous representations of women recovering, always on the verge of slipping back into madness. Men's madness is strengthening; women's madness weakens them, languishing (relationship to multiple representations of women dying of tuberculosis, a disease which in literature shows a strange affinity for young attractive female characters). But see Heroes/Niki; Millennium/Frank Black & Lara Means; X-Files/Mulder). Is madness for Niki weakness? Social punishment for an out-of-control / strong female character? Can she integrate?
How much is madness a reasonable response to unreasonable conditions? e.g., Yellow Wallpaper; Friedan / Feminine Mystique. Patriarchy as literally maddening. Madness as depression; social conditions of women as more likely to suffer severe depression & attempt suicide; social outlets for men to channel emotions into rage (and social outlets for them to express rage; e.g., military; sports)
SF and other art forms
SF as always offers opportunities to explore different forms of madness and different social treatments for madness. (See Piercy/WOTEOT.)
Madness long history in non-SF and para-SF genres; see, e.g., Lucia Lammermoor (opera); Brontë's Jane Eyre (early gothic / romance) and feminist re-take on madness told from Rochester's wife's perspective (Jean Rhys Wide Sargasso Sea). Madness haunts gothic literature from Jane Eyre onward; Yellow Wallpaper in partial response to that.
List of works
- Lois McMaster Bujold - The Curse of Chalion and Paladin of Souls
- Charlotte Perkins Gilman - "The Yellow Wallpaper"
- Gwyneth Jones - Life - A major character has a mental / nervous breakdown for some weeks.
- Justine Larbalestier - "Magic or Madness Trilogy" - A major character has a mental breakdown; madness hangs over many characters.
- Norma Marden - An Eye for Dark Places (1993)
- Marge Piercy - Woman on the Edge of Time (in "utopian" future society it is discussed that one character had a breakdown; mental breakdowns are not treated negatively. This is in contrast with treatment of protagonist in modern-day US society, where diagnosis is affected by racism and sexism, and treatment is inhumane and stigmatizing.)
- Raccoona Sheldon - "Your Faces, O My Sisters! Your Faces Filled of Light!"
- Sarah Waters - Affinity
- Ophelia / Shakespeare
- "Millennium (TV series)" episode; see Lara Means; see also Frank Black as comparatively rare example of male protagonist experiencing madness or insanity
- Heroes (TV series) - character Niki Sanders in season 1
suggestions & possibilities
- "A Very Little Madness Goes a Long Way" by M. Rickert