The madhouse of language

Description

In The Madhouse of Language, the history of writing about madness is seen in terms of a suppression of mad language by an increasingly confident medical profession, in which orthodox attitudes towards language are endorsed by rigorous treatment of the insane, or by a manipulative moral therapy. Recognised writers of the period reflect the fascination with a form of mental existence that nevertheless remains beyond expression through socially acceptable forms of language. A wide variety of written and oral material by mad men and women, drawn both from medical records and from published works, is discussed in the context of this linguistic suppression. The context, forms and strategies of mad texts are analysed in a highly original account of the linguistic relations between madness and sanity, of the appropriation by sane writers of the forms of English, and of attempts by mad patients to gain access to the expressive potential of language.

Subjects

Other Editions

• The madhouse of language: writing and reading madness in the eighteenth centuryRoutledge1991-01-01
• The Madhouse of LanguageElectronic resourceTaylor & Francis Inc2003-01-01
• Madhouse of LanguageTaylor & Francis Group2013-01-01
• Madhouse of LanguageTaylor & Francis Group2013-01-01
• Madhouse of LanguageTaylor & Francis Group2013-01-01
• Madhouse of LanguageTaylor & Francis Group2013-01-01