“Madness is rare in individuals, but in groups, parties, nations, and ages it is the rule”- Friedrich Nietzsche

In this course we will examine madness as a symbol for the American condition. We will begin with the precept that madness is often an allegory for other outcast conditions, and we will study how American writers have used the allegory of madness to tease out non-normative subjects’ relations to the state. In particular, we will track the making of representative Americans in literature from the late-18th century to the present; we will notice that rationality with which these citizens are credited depends on a series of foils (eg., women, people of color and sexual minorities) who are variously coded as mad. We will devote equal time to literature which challenges this definition of Americanness, paying particular attention to writers who represent the pain of dispossession as an experience akin to madness.

Documents written by the founding fathers (eg., The Constitution and Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia) lay the groundwork for our investigation. We will pursue the theme of madness in close readings of short stories, novels, poetry and film from the 19th and 20th centuries. Finally, we will supplement these literary texts with readings in psychoanalysis, literary, and cultural theory.

This class functions through a student-centered pedagogy. This means that active in-class participation is required and will comprise a substantial portion of your final grade. Lectures will be rare occurrences, and class time will mostly be comprised of focused discussions and classroom activities. Expect hearty, and sometimes dense, readings and weekly 2 page response papers. Your in-class participation, weekly responses, and a 5-7 page paper will determine your final grade.

Texts:

• Ralph Ellison. Invisible Man.
• William Faulkner. The Sound and the Fury.
• Sylvia Plath. The Bell Jar.

A course reader will contain texts by Thomas Jefferson, David Walker, Nathanial Hawthorne, Charlotte Perkins-Gillman, Edgar Allan Poe, Herman Melville and others.