Redefining Hysteria: Representations of Mental Illness in Modern Literature
Instructor: Dr. Marieke Kalkhove
Email: [email protected]
Course website: http://redefininghysteria.weebly.com
Session: Fall 2015
Days: Mondays, November 2nd – December 7th (6 weeks)
Location: 124 Leeds House
Time: 10:30 p.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Course Description:
In the early twentieth century, psychoanalysts, sexologists, and writers began to develop
a more complex understanding of hysteria. While hysteria was largely considered a
“female” illness in the Victorian era, modernist writers began to problematize
understandings of hysteria that revealed a strong gender bias and that pathologized
certain “unacceptable” social behaviours. This course discusses the works of modern
psychoanalysts and artists, who were interested in redefining Victorian notions of
hysteria. Readings include excerpts from Freud’s Dora: An Analysis of a Case of
Hysteria, poetry by modernist and Freudian patient H.D., Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s
“The Yellow Wallpaper,” and Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway.
Recommended Readings:
Sigmund Freud, excerpts from Dora: An Analysis of a Case of Hysteria
Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway
H.D., selected poems
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, “The Yellow Wallpaper” and “Why I Wrote the Yellow
Wallpaper”
Please remember that the readings are not required but recommended. Read what you
can and enjoy! If you are experiencing any problems accessing the readings, please do
not hesitate to contact me.
Schedule of Readings:
Week 1: Introduction: Hysteria in the Victorian Era, Charcot, hypnosis, and the beginning
of the “talking cure.”
Week 2: Madness and Powerlessness: The Rest Cure
Recommended reading: Charlotte Perkins Gilman, “The Yellow Wallpaper” (1892) and
“Why I Wrote the Yellow Wallpaper” (1913)
Week 3: Freud: The Sexual Causes of Hysteria
Recommended reading: Sigmund Freud, Dora: An Analysis of a Case of Hysteria (1905)
Week 4: Shell Shock and Hysteria: The Connection
Recommended reading: Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway
Week 5: A Patient’s Perspective
Recommended reading: H.D.’s Selected Poems
Week 6: Wrap-up and Conclusion