Course description: “The only people for me are the mad ones,” Jack Kerouac writes in On the Road (1957), “the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time.” The celebration of the madman in Beat literature (Kerouac, Ginsberg, Kesey) signals a paradigm shift in the portrayal of ‘insane’ behavior in American culture and literature. Whereas in 19th century romantic literature, madness was often seen as a dangerous, yet fascinating deviation from normality, postmodernity has become literally obsessed with the ‘mad Other,’ valorizing its emancipatory and empowering qualities. The course will begin with descriptions of mad, or insane, behavior in Gothic writing (especially Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” from 1843), then move on to stories such as Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” (1892). What function does madness have in these texts? What does it signify and what relationship between the reader and the ‘mad’ protagonist is established in them? 20th century literary texts on madness to be discussed in class will include writings by the Beats (On the Road from 1957) and Margaret Atwood (“Polarities” from 1977), just to name a few. As to visual negotiations of the theme, we will discuss important films such as Now, Voyager (1942, dir. Irving Rapper), The Dark Mirror (1946, dir. RobertSiodmak), One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975, dir. Miloš Forman), and Pi (1998, dir. Darren Aronofsky). How can the fascination of mainstream Hollywood fiction with issues of deviation be explained? What function does the ‘mad Other’ have for a culture that accentuates individuality and rejects any form of conformism? In addition to these texts, we will take a brief glimpse at the negotiation of eccentricity as a liberating personal trait in American television series (Monk, Ally McBeal) and in music (Lady Gaga). Our observations will be backed by theoretical approaches by Michel Foucault (Wahnsinn und Gesellschaft), Shoshana Felman ("Madness and the Literary"), and Jürgen Link (Versuch über den Normalismus).
Grading:
2 CP: active participation in class discussions, expert session plus handout & at least nine entries in the discussion forum before the session;
5 CP: competent & lively participation in class discussions, expert session plus handout & at least ten entries in the discussion forum before the session & a 5-page summary of one important primary or secondary text (to be made accessible to the class);
7 CP: competent & lively participation in class discussions, expert session plus handout & at least ten entries in the discussion forum before the session & final paper of ca. 15 pages on a seminar-related topic with a close reading.
Deadline for Final Papers: Friday, March 31 (Thursday), 2011. Note: There is no (!) extension of this deadline.