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This paper explores the intersection of female madness and Gothic space in four pieces of Gothic media: Jane Eyre written By Charlotte Brontë, "The Yellow Wallpaper" written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Carrie (1976) directed by Brian De Palma, and Midsommar (2016) directed by Ari Aster. In these texts, female characters

This paper explores the intersection of female madness and Gothic space in four pieces of Gothic media: Jane Eyre written By Charlotte Brontë, "The Yellow Wallpaper" written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Carrie (1976) directed by Brian De Palma, and Midsommar (2016) directed by Ari Aster. In these texts, female characters find themselves driven “mad,” either by their own design or from outside influences. While the madness presents itself differently in each text, they all share common elements, especially in terms of Gothic space. Each text sees its madwoman affected by the environment around them whether it is explicitly stated in-text or not. Gothic space acts as both a metanarrative on the characters’ lives and emotions, and as literal, physical spaces that the characters inhabit and interact with. Oftentimes, what the character cannot express is told through the environment around her. Feelings of suffocation, misery, entrapment, and repression are represented in and through haunted homes, quasi-asylums, closets, schools, attics, and sun-lit fields. In analyzing all four texts individually and in relation to one another, this paper also argues for the presence of a paradox inherent in the cultural formation of female madness. In each text, all written/created across 200+ years, a common theme emerges. Though the expression of madness for the women in each text is a freeing and liberating experience, they also meet tragic and often violent ends. The madness exhibited in each text is both a response to and an expression of trauma - resulting in either victimization or villainization for the women who succumb to it. The end result depicts women who have been physically, mentally, and emotionally destroyed from their own madness. In freeing themselves, they unknowingly and unintentionally subject themselves to further pain and misery.

ContributorsBoyle, Molly Anne (Author) / Justice, George (Thesis director) / Sandler, Kevin (Committee member) / Department of English (Contributor, Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2021-05
Description
Queer individuals are frequently perceived as ‘the Other’ and thus, ‘the Other’ that exists in the imagination of writers as creatures and monsters to terrify audiences frequently take on queer characteristics. However, to examine these monsters, their transformations, and the communities that connect to them further, we must step away

Queer individuals are frequently perceived as ‘the Other’ and thus, ‘the Other’ that exists in the imagination of writers as creatures and monsters to terrify audiences frequently take on queer characteristics. However, to examine these monsters, their transformations, and the communities that connect to them further, we must step away from the cis, straight view of ‘normality’ and attempt to discuss the creature from within. This paper aims to examine the experiences of individual queer identities as they transition out of assumed heteronormativity and into ‘the Other’ themselves through the monsters that each identity aligns itself with narratively.
Contributorsvan Doren, Claire (Author) / Irish, Jennifer (Thesis director) / Himberg, Julia (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor) / School of Social Transformation (Contributor) / Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Comm (Contributor)
Created2023-12