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The (neo-)Victorian madwoman : biofictional reconfigurations
Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2024.
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University
2025
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| _version_ | 1867613900016451584 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Snyckers, Julia Kathleen |
| author2 | Ellis, Jeanne |
| author_browse | Ellis, Jeanne Snyckers, Julia Kathleen |
| author_facet | Ellis, Jeanne Snyckers, Julia Kathleen |
| author_sort | Snyckers, Julia Kathleen |
| collection | Thesis |
| dc_rights_str_mv | Stellenbosch University |
| description | Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2024. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/131915 |
| institution | Stellenbosch University (South Africa) |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:43:29.289Z |
| license_str | Other — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from SUNScholar — Stellenbosch University Repository |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| publishDateRange | 2025 |
| publishDateSort | 2025 |
| publisher | Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University |
| publisherStr | Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | SUNScholar — Stellenbosch University Repository |
| spelling | oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/131915 The (neo-)Victorian madwoman : biofictional reconfigurations Snyckers, Julia Kathleen Ellis, Jeanne Ellis, Jeanne, 1962- Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of English. Women in literature Feminism in literature English literature -- 19th century -- History and criticism Biographical fiction, English -- History and criticism UCTD Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2024. ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Feminist literary critics have identified the madwoman of nineteenth-century literature as a symbol of women’s rage, disempowerment, and proto-feminist resistance. In the nineteenth-century novel, this figure often appears on the narrative margins, serving either as a device that must be removed from the plot to secure closure for the protagonists, or as a caution against female non-conformity if she is a central character. As part of its ethic to foreground the voices of historically marginalised subjects, the neo-Victorian novel recuperates the madwoman by moving her to the centre of narrative importance. The biofictional mode affords writers the flexibility to fictionalise elements of a biographical subject’s life when details thereof have been lost to or misrepresented in the historical record, as was frequently the case with women who were labelled mad. While neo-Victorian biofictions are conventionally set in Victorian England, a more inclusive definition of neo-Victorianism encapsulates those novels that offer biofictional reconfigurations of the madwoman figure from across European and North American contexts in the long nineteenth century. This thesis will undertake to widen the scope of neo-Victorianism through conducting a close analysis of The Mad Women’s Ball (2021) by Victoria Mas, Dreaming for Freud (2014) by Sheila Kohler, and Madwoman (2022) by Louisa Treger as feminist neo-Victorian biofictions that depart from a traditional Victorian setting to provide a fuller picture of nineteenth-century medical misogyny and its impact on the lives of historical women. The Mad Women’s Ball assembles elements of the real-life identities of Louise ‘Augustine’ Gleizes, Geneviève Basile Legrand, Marguerite Bottard, Hersilie Rouy, and Jane Avril to construct a biofictional collage through its composite characters, Louise, Eugénie Cléry, and Geneviève Gleizes. Dreaming for Freud casts Ida Bauer and Sigmund Freud as biofictional protagonists who refract each other’s desires, and Madwoman explores the interior life of its sole biofictional protagonist, Nellie Bly, a pioneer in the field of investigative journalism for women. I will trace the trajectory of medically sanctioned control over women’s minds and bodies from nineteenth-century Paris at the Salpêtrière asylum to the dawn of Freudian psychoanalysis in fin-de-siècle Vienna, concluding with an investigation of the transposition of medical misogyny to the asylum on Blackwell’s Island off the coast of New York. AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Feministiese kritici van die letterkunde identifiseer die ‘mal vrou’ van die negentiende eeuse literatuur as ‘n simbool van vroulike woede, ontmagtiging en proto-feministiese verset. In romans uit die negentiende eeu verskyn dié figuur dikwels op die rand van die verhaal, en dien óf as ‘n stylfiguur wat uit die verhaal verwyder moet word om sluiting vir die protagonis in die hand te werk, óf, as sy ‘n hoofkarakter is, as waarskuwing teen non-konformisme van vroue. As onderdeel van die etiese posisie om die stemme van geskiedkundige randfigure op die voorgrond te plaas, genees die neo-Victoriaanse roman die ‘mal vrou’ deur haar na die sentrum van die verhaal te verplaas. Die biofiksionele styl bied skrywers die buigsaamheid om die lewenselemente van ‘n biografiese subjek te fiksionaliseer, waar besonderhede in die historiese rekord verlore gegaan het of wanvoorgestel is, wat dikwels die geval was toe vroue as ‘mal’ gebrandmerk is. Hoewel die meeste neo-Victoriaanse biofiksies in die Engeland van koningin Victoria afspeel, sluit ‘n meer inklusiewe definisie van neo-Victorianisme ook soortgelyke biofiksionele herskeppings van die ‘mal vrou’-figuur in Europa en Noord-Amerika in die sogenaamde lang negentiende eeu in. Hierdie tesis poog om die omvang van neoVictorianisme te verbreed deur middel van ‘n stiplees-analise van The Mad Women’s Ball (2021) deur Victoria Mas, Dreaming for Freud (2014) deur Shelia Kohler, en Madwoman (2022) deur Louisa Treger, as feministiese biofiksies wat uit die geykte Victoriaanse ruimte tree, om ‘n wyer beeld van negentiende eeuse mediese misoginie te skep, met inagneming van sy impak op vroue uit die geskiedenis. Met sy saamgestelde karakters, Louise, Eugénie Cléry en Geneviève Gleizes, skaar The Mad Women’s Ball aspekte van die werklike lewens van Louise ‘Augustine’ Gleizes, Geneviève Basile Legrand, Marguerite Bottard, Hersilie Rouy, en Jane Avril bymekaar, om ‘n biofiksionele collage te skep. Dreaming for Freud verbeeld Ida Bauer en Sigmund Freud as biofiksionele protagoniste wat mekaar se begeertes weerspieël, en Madwoman ondersoek die binnelewe van sy enkele biofiksionele protagonis, Nellie Bly, ‘n pionier in die vroulike ondersoekende joernalistiek. Ek skets die trajek van mediesbemagtigde beheer van vroue se denke en liggame wat strek van die Salpêtrière-gestig in die Parys van die negentiende eeu tot en met die aanbreek van Freudiaanse psigoanalise in finde-siècle Wene, en wat afsluit met ‘n ondersoek van die verplasing van mediese misoginie na die gestig op Blackwell-eiland teen die New Yorkse kus. Masters 2025-04-09T10:26:37Z 2025-04-09T10:26:37Z 2024-12 Thesis https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/131915 en Stellenbosch University vi, 126 pages application/pdf Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University |
| spellingShingle | Women in literature Feminism in literature English literature -- 19th century -- History and criticism Biographical fiction, English -- History and criticism UCTD Snyckers, Julia Kathleen The (neo-)Victorian madwoman : biofictional reconfigurations |
| title | The (neo-)Victorian madwoman : biofictional reconfigurations |
| title_full | The (neo-)Victorian madwoman : biofictional reconfigurations |
| title_fullStr | The (neo-)Victorian madwoman : biofictional reconfigurations |
| title_full_unstemmed | The (neo-)Victorian madwoman : biofictional reconfigurations |
| title_short | The (neo-)Victorian madwoman : biofictional reconfigurations |
| title_sort | neo victorian madwoman biofictional reconfigurations |
| topic | Women in literature Feminism in literature English literature -- 19th century -- History and criticism Biographical fiction, English -- History and criticism UCTD |
| url | https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/131915 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT snyckersjuliakathleen theneovictorianmadwomanbiofictionalreconfigurations AT snyckersjuliakathleen neovictorianmadwomanbiofictionalreconfigurations |