Madness in Post-1945 British and American Fiction

by Crawford, Paul; Baker, Charley; Carter, Ronald; Brown, Brian; Lipsedge, Maurice

• ISBN13: 9780230219755
• ISBN10: 0230219756
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-11-15
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

This is one of the first books to comprehensively explore representations of madness in postwar British and American Fiction. The five authors come from diverse backgrounds literary studies, social psychology, medical psychiatry and psychiatric nursing and as such the book's perspectives are informed through several discourses, making it a unique co-authored text in the discipline of Health Humanities. The book looks at representations of madness in a range of texts by postwar writers (such as Ken Kesey, Marge Piercy, Patrick McGrath, Leslie Marmon Silko, William Golding, Patrick Gale, William Burroughs and J.G. Ballard, to name a few), and explores the ways in which these representations help to shape public perceptions and experiences of mental disorder. This book is relevant to both those with interests in literary studies and a vital read for psychiatric clinicians and professionals who are interested in how literature can inform and enhance clinical practices.

Author Biography

Charley Baker is Research Associate at the University of Nottingham, and is working towards a PhD at Royal Holloway on Postmodern Psychosis. She has published work on self harm in literature and using literature in clinical education. Baker has research interests in madness and literature, literature and trauma, bibliotherapy, and suicide and self harm. She is co-founder of the Madness and Literature Network (www.madnessandliterature.org). Paul Crawford is Professor of Health Humanities at the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Physiotherapy at the University of Nottingham. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Professor of the Institute of Mental Health, and holds visiting chairs in Australia and Taiwan. B. J. Brown has research interests which span the social sciences and humanities and involve the development of theoretical frameworks to facilitate interdisciplinary research. He has published widely on healthcare and the social theory of mind, Foucault and Pierre Bourdieu. Maurice Lipsedge is Emeritus Consultant Psychiatrist with South London and Maudsley NHS Trust, and Visiting Senior Lecturer in the Department of Psychological Medicine within Guys, Kings and St Thomas' School of Medicine. He is author, with Roland Littlewood, of Aliens and Alienists: Ethnic Minorities and Psychiatry, and author of a number of books, papers and chapters on occupational psychiatry, medical ethics, risk assessment and medical anthropology. Ronald Carter is Professor of Modern English Language in the School of English Studies, University of Nottingham. He has published over 100 papers and written, co-written, edited and co-edited over 50 books in the field of language and literature studies, applied linguistics, English language teaching and learning and communication studies.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Author Biographies
Writing Madness, Analysing Madness
Mental States
Power and Institutions in Fiction
Diversity, Ethnicity, Madness and Fiction
Creativity, Madness and Fiction
Postmodern Madness
Literature and Clinical Education
Bibliography 
Endnotes
Index