Full Text Available
Note: Clicking the button above will open the full text document at the original institutional repository in a new window.
Madmen and mad money: psychological disability and economics in medieval and early modern literature
In medieval and early modern literature, people with psychological disabilities are commonly represented as nuisances, monsters, and pitiable wretches. This ableist paradigm is partly attributable to the fact that ‘mad’ characters evoke economic anxieties rooted in the socioeconomic climate of the s...
Saved in:
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Department of English Language and Literature
2018
|
| Subjects: | |
| Tags: |
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1867613793770536960 |
|---|---|
| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Leverton, Tara Juliette Corinna |
| author2 | Young, Sandra |
| author_browse | Leverton, Tara Juliette Corinna Young, Sandra |
| author_facet | Young, Sandra Leverton, Tara Juliette Corinna |
| author_sort | Leverton, Tara Juliette Corinna |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | In medieval and early modern literature, people with psychological disabilities are commonly represented as nuisances, monsters, and pitiable wretches. This ableist paradigm is partly attributable to the fact that ‘mad’ characters evoke economic anxieties rooted in the socioeconomic climate of the societies in which the respective texts are created. Fictional ‘madmen’ are used as symbols of or scapegoats for economic problems such as rising poverty, price fluctuations, wealth inequality, and evolving inheritance systems. This exacerbates a prevailing belief that the psychologically disabled are undeserving of respect and care, or even that they are less than human. My goal in this dissertation is to document occurrences of this paradigm and analyse how they contribute to the cultural degradation and dehumanisation of people with psychological disabilities. Applying analytical frameworks provided by disability theorists regarding neurodiversity and sanism to medieval and early modern literature, this dissertation will attempt to expand and invigorate the conversation around disabled people’s cultural history. Each chapter finds the seed of its primary focus in scripture – for example, I examine Herod when discussing madness’s effect on the domestic realm and Noah when discussing madness in old age – and each proceeds in a generally chronologically fashion from scripture to medieval literature and finally early modern literature. The medieval texts I analyse are diverse and range from religious poems such as John Gower’s Confessio Amantis (c. 14th century) to the chivalric romances of Chrétien de Troyes. Likewise, the early modern texts under scrutiny include Ben Jonson’s city comedies and Shakespeare’s tragic Timon of Athens (1607). The wide-ranging nature of the texts I examine is intended to indicate that the ableist notions being unpacked are not limited by genre or period |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/28391 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:41:48.085Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2018 |
| publishDateRange | 2018 |
| publishDateSort | 2018 |
| publisher | Department of English Language and Literature |
| publisherStr | Department of English Language and Literature |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/28391 Madmen and mad money: psychological disability and economics in medieval and early modern literature Leverton, Tara Juliette Corinna Young, Sandra Higginbotham, Derrick medieval early modern literature economics psychological disability In medieval and early modern literature, people with psychological disabilities are commonly represented as nuisances, monsters, and pitiable wretches. This ableist paradigm is partly attributable to the fact that ‘mad’ characters evoke economic anxieties rooted in the socioeconomic climate of the societies in which the respective texts are created. Fictional ‘madmen’ are used as symbols of or scapegoats for economic problems such as rising poverty, price fluctuations, wealth inequality, and evolving inheritance systems. This exacerbates a prevailing belief that the psychologically disabled are undeserving of respect and care, or even that they are less than human. My goal in this dissertation is to document occurrences of this paradigm and analyse how they contribute to the cultural degradation and dehumanisation of people with psychological disabilities. Applying analytical frameworks provided by disability theorists regarding neurodiversity and sanism to medieval and early modern literature, this dissertation will attempt to expand and invigorate the conversation around disabled people’s cultural history. Each chapter finds the seed of its primary focus in scripture – for example, I examine Herod when discussing madness’s effect on the domestic realm and Noah when discussing madness in old age – and each proceeds in a generally chronologically fashion from scripture to medieval literature and finally early modern literature. The medieval texts I analyse are diverse and range from religious poems such as John Gower’s Confessio Amantis (c. 14th century) to the chivalric romances of Chrétien de Troyes. Likewise, the early modern texts under scrutiny include Ben Jonson’s city comedies and Shakespeare’s tragic Timon of Athens (1607). The wide-ranging nature of the texts I examine is intended to indicate that the ableist notions being unpacked are not limited by genre or period 2018-09-04T14:00:11Z 2018-09-04T14:00:11Z 2018 2018-09-03T06:31:27Z Thesis http://hdl.handle.net/11427/28391 eng application/pdf Department of English Language and Literature Faculty of Humanities University of Cape Town |
| spellingShingle | medieval early modern literature economics psychological disability Leverton, Tara Juliette Corinna Madmen and mad money: psychological disability and economics in medieval and early modern literature |
| title | Madmen and mad money: psychological disability and economics in medieval and early modern literature |
| title_full | Madmen and mad money: psychological disability and economics in medieval and early modern literature |
| title_fullStr | Madmen and mad money: psychological disability and economics in medieval and early modern literature |
| title_full_unstemmed | Madmen and mad money: psychological disability and economics in medieval and early modern literature |
| title_short | Madmen and mad money: psychological disability and economics in medieval and early modern literature |
| title_sort | madmen and mad money psychological disability and economics in medieval and early modern literature |
| topic | medieval early modern literature economics psychological disability |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/28391 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT levertontarajuliettecorinna madmenandmadmoneypsychologicaldisabilityandeconomicsinmedievalandearlymodernliterature |