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Mental illness can often be the driving force behind creativity. This relationship is never more apparent than in the memoirs of writers who have lived, worked and created with a mental illness. Mad Muse examines and unpicks this fascinating relationship, demonstrating that mental illness is often intergenerational while the story of mental illness is intertextual.
The study begins with William Styron's iconic memoir Darkness Visible, moving through a succession of mental illness memoirs from some of the most important authors in the genre, including Kate Millett, Kay Redfield Jamison, Linda Sexton, Lauren Slater, Andrew Solomon and Elyn Saks.
From memoirs that blur the boundaries between historical truth and narrative truth to a first-person account of schizophrenia, Berman discusses the challenges of reading books which inspire hope and courage in many readers but may also sometimes have unintended consequences. In so doing, it illuminates the complex, co-existing relationship between the arts and mental health and represents an invaluable contribution to the study of health humanities.
Price: $33.99
Pages: 384
Publisher: Emerald Publishing Limited
Imprint: Emerald Publishing Limited
Publication Date:
03 September 2019
ISBN: 9781789738100
Format: Paperback
BISACs:
LITERARY CRITICISM / General, Medical sociology, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Personal Memoirs, MEDICAL / Mental Health
With the rise of the memoir genre, authors have become ever more candid about the complexity of their inner lives, including states of extreme excitement, depression, and disorganization. Berman explores this special type of memoir with insight, generosity, and eloquence. He places each in the context of the author’s previous writings, as a means of illuminating the interactions among them, as well as the author’s consistent themes and concerns. The result is an amazing journey for the reader, who will dive into the depths of each writer’s life and imagination in a way that makes their experiences accessible, while inspiring admiration for their courage and accomplishments. Mad Muse expands our understanding of the range of human suffering, endurance, achievement, and triumph.
Jeffrey Berman is Distinguished Teaching Professor of English at the University at Albany, USA. He has written on a wide range of subjects, including literature and psychoanalysis, the pedagogy of self-disclosure, love and loss, and death education.
Introduction: Out of the Closet to Bear Witness
Chapter 1. "The Landscape of Depression"; William Styron and Darkness Visible
Chapter 2. "My Proclaimed Sanity and My Conjectured Madness"; Kate Millett and The Loony-Bin Trip
Chapter 3. "A Strange and Driving Force, a Destroyer, a Fire in the Blood"; Kay Redfield Jamison and An Unquiet Mind
Chapter 4. "For Better or Worse You Inherit Me"; Linda Gray Sexton and Searching for Mercy Street and Half in Love
Chapter 5. "Truth Is Bendable"; Lauren Slater and Lying
Chapter 6. "I Cannot Separate Her Homophobia from My Own"; Andrew Solomon and The Noonday Demon
Chapter 7. "Someone Acts Through My Brain"; Elyn R. Saks and The Center Cannot Hold
Conclusion: The Challenges of Reading Mad Memoirs