| dc.description | This thesis focuses on thirteen representations of madness in twentieth century literature, art and cinema. While the main purpose is to demonstrate the diversity of approaches to the portrayal of psychological turbulence in creative works, several secondary themes are also explored, in particular, the relationship between women and madness. It is, however, my primary intention to show that, given the unlimited and ever-escaping meaning of madness, it is hardly surprising that there should exist such a dizzying, kaleidoscopic variety of works on this topic, not all of which frame it as a negative or frightening experience. The image of the kaleidoscope is pertinent also in that its role is to reflect, refract, fragment and redistribute parts of patterns in the same way that mental disorders could be said to reflect, refract and redistribute elements of the human psyche. | en_US |
