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240061 PS Elective Subjects in Master's Programme Gender Studies (2022S)

‘Madwomen’: The Pathologisation of Deviant Femininity in Anglo-American Literature and Culture

4.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 24 - Kultur- und Sozialanthropologie
Continuous assessment of course work
Moodle

Registration/Deregistration

Note: The time of your registration within the registration period has no effect on the allocation of places (no first come, first served).

Details

Language: English

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

There will be a film screening of "Jane Eyre" in the session on the 25th of May. The film slightly exceeds the duration of the session (120 min). Please take this into account when you register for the course.

Please be aware that some of the sessions might be conducted online (Zoom or Skype) or via e-learning (Moodle).

  • Wednesday 02.03. 18:30 - 20:00 Hörsaal 16 Hauptgebäude, Hochparterre, Stiege 5
  • Wednesday 09.03. 18:30 - 20:00 Hörsaal 16 Hauptgebäude, Hochparterre, Stiege 5
  • Wednesday 16.03. 18:30 - 20:00 Hörsaal 16 Hauptgebäude, Hochparterre, Stiege 5
  • Wednesday 23.03. 18:30 - 20:00 Hörsaal 16 Hauptgebäude, Hochparterre, Stiege 5
  • Wednesday 30.03. 18:30 - 20:00 Hörsaal 16 Hauptgebäude, Hochparterre, Stiege 5
  • Wednesday 06.04. 18:30 - 20:00 Hörsaal 16 Hauptgebäude, Hochparterre, Stiege 5
  • Wednesday 27.04. 18:30 - 20:00 Hörsaal 16 Hauptgebäude, Hochparterre, Stiege 5
  • Wednesday 04.05. 18:30 - 20:00 Hörsaal 16 Hauptgebäude, Hochparterre, Stiege 5
  • Wednesday 11.05. 18:30 - 20:00 Hörsaal 16 Hauptgebäude, Hochparterre, Stiege 5
  • Wednesday 18.05. 18:30 - 20:00 Hörsaal 16 Hauptgebäude, Hochparterre, Stiege 5
  • Wednesday 25.05. 18:30 - 20:00 Hörsaal 16 Hauptgebäude, Hochparterre, Stiege 5
  • Wednesday 01.06. 18:30 - 20:00 Hörsaal 16 Hauptgebäude, Hochparterre, Stiege 5
  • Wednesday 08.06. 18:30 - 20:00 Hörsaal 16 Hauptgebäude, Hochparterre, Stiege 5
  • Wednesday 15.06. 18:30 - 20:00 Hörsaal 16 Hauptgebäude, Hochparterre, Stiege 5
  • Wednesday 22.06. 18:30 - 20:00 Hörsaal 16 Hauptgebäude, Hochparterre, Stiege 5
  • Wednesday 29.06. 18:30 - 20:00 Hörsaal 16 Hauptgebäude, Hochparterre, Stiege 5

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

‘Madness’ is a gendered phenomenon, including different diagnostic categories for men and women (cf. nineteenth-century discourses of hysteria) as well as gendered types of treatment. The predominance of female patients in mental institutions, a phenomenon that can be observed from the seventeenth up to the twentieth century, led critics to argue that ‘madness’ is in fact a “female malady” (see Elaine Showalter, The Female Malady). Since ‘madness’ is a discursive construct that has frequently been used to contain deviance (see Michel Foucault, Madness and Civilization), women have been more prone to being labelled ‘mad’ than men. After all, as Judith Bardwick has noted, “The insistence that femininity evolves from necessarily frustrated masculinity makes femininity a sort of ‘normal pathology’” .

Literary representations of ‘madwomen’ will be the focus of this proseminar. In order to show students how conceptions of ‘madness’ have changed over the course of history, the course material will be organised in a diachronic fashion. All of the primary texts will be situated in their respective historical and discursive context to demonstrate how literature has shown itself receptive to discursive shifts and how it in turn contributed to the discursive construction of ‘madness’. Apart from literary texts, students will also be familiarised with a wide variety of non-literary texts from various disciplines that deal with ‘madness’, e.g. historical medical texts and key theoretical texts.

Methods:
Student-centred expert sessions incl. classroom (or online) discussions
Direct instruction (partly via Moodle) incl. interactive elements like group or independent tasks

Assessment and permitted materials

Active in-class and online participation, timely preparation of the assigned reading material and of discussion questions (or other tasks), preparation of and participation in an expert session (involving expert input during the session as well as the preparation of a handout and of discussion questions or other tasks), term paper on a self-chosen topic (ca. 3,500 words).

Students' contributions must be in line with the scientific criteria of the subject.

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

Assessment will be based on students’ active in-class and online participation, their performance as experts in the expert session and a term paper. Students will be awarded points for their performance in these three areas.

In order to get a pass grade, students have to at least score 60 out of 100 points and fulfil all course requirements (i.e. participate actively in discussions (both online and on site), act as experts in an expert session, and hand in a term paper at the end of the term).

Plagiarism will automatically result in a failing grade.

Students can miss two sessions (with a doctor's note an additional third session may be missed but needs to be compensated for at the teacher's discretion).

Expert session: 30 points
Active in-class and online participation: 25 points
Term paper: 45 points

Grading Scale:
1 (sehr gut): 90-100 points
2 (gut): 89-80 points
3 (befriedigend): 79-70 points
4 (genügend): 69-60 points
5 (nicht genügend): 59-0 points

Examination topics

All the materials covered in class or online.

Reading list

Longer texts (in order of discussion):

William Shakespeare's Macbeth
Mary Wollstonecraft's Maria: or, The Wrongs of Woman
Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper
Mary Elizabeth Braddon's Lady Audley's Secret
Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea
Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar

Association in the course directory

Last modified: Mo 07.03.2022 08:48