This cross-period course offers the opportunity to explore the proliferation of ‘mad, bad, and sad’ women in literature from the nineteenth century until the present day. We will use sources and ideas from medical humanities, psychiatry, gender studies, and cultural history to unpick literary depictions of female madness. Examining issues such as wrongful confinement, hysteria, addiction, diagnosis, and treatment, we will consider how the conception and representation of ‘madness’ varies dependent on time, gender, place, and voice. 

The literature studied may include works by Margaret Atwood, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Charlotte Brontë, Jeffrey Eugenides, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Stephen King, Amy Liptrot, Patrick McGrath, Toni Morrison, Sylvia Plath, and Jean Rhys. 

We will cover sensitive issues, such as eating disorders and suicide, within this course.