Vertiefungsseminar You must be crazy Madness in literature

Mental illnesses are very common: according to the WHO's world health report from the year 2001, 5.8% of men and 9.5% of women will experience a depressive episode in a 12-month period; and even schizophrenia, a disorder which is far from being at the centre of most people's attention, has a point prevalence of 0.4%, meaning that statistically speaking, every 250th person you meet has schizophrenia at any given point in time. Nevertheless, mentally ill people still suffer from substantial stigma, not least because medical science has just begun to understand the factors that lead to illness or support recovery. Throughout history, mad people have alternately been viewed as moral delinquents whose madness constitutes the punishment for their actions, as patients in need of medical treatment, as potentially dangerous people to be locked away, or as wise people who have access to deeper insights than so-called sane people. In view of this kaleidoscope of conceptualizations, it is no wonder that the idea of madness has the potential to frighten, inspire scientific curiosity, destroy lives, or change our perspective on the world. Nor is it surprising that artists have often used mad characters as invitations to the reader to see the world differently, or as vessels for their various criticisms of society. In this class we will review the cultural history of madness (how people classified as insane have been treated through the ages), as well as criticisms of the concept of madness, mostly in the form of the so-called anti-psychiatric movement, including the question of how to differentiate between mad and normal. We will compare how these aspects are implemented in prose and drama. After this general investigation, our discussion will focus more specifically on schizophrenia: we will get to know what it means and discuss how the schizophrenic experience can be conveyed in a literary text. An analysis of Peter Handke's Die Angst des Tormanns beim Elfmeter and its translation by Michael Roloff will provide us with material not only to appreciate the stylistic difficulties of the endeavour of translating schizophrenic thought into a literary text but also of preserving this literary expression of a pathological experience while translating it into a different language. Literary texts (ISBNs of preferred editions in brackets): - Will Self: The Quantity Theory of Insanity (text will be provided in class) - Alan Bennett: The Madness of George III (0-571-16749-7) - Ken Kesey: One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest (978-0-451-16396-7) - Peter Handke: Die Angst des Tormanns beim Elfmeter (978-3-518-36527-4)/The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick (978-0-374-53106-5, relevant excerpts will be provided in class) Some of the theoretical texts we will discuss in extracts (will be provided in class): - Michel Foucault: Madness and Civilization - Ronald D. Laing: The Divided Self - Thomas Szasz: The Myth of Mental Illness Leistungsnachweis term paper (10-15 pages) or oral exam Anglistik u.Amerikanistik (BA, PO 2013) Kernfach term paper (10-15 pages) or oral exam Universität Düsseldorf WiSe 2016/17 Weißbach Lisa