Minds, Madness and Literature (ENG4MML)
English - La Trobe University
Semester 1 / 2010

Texts

y separately published work icon Toy Symphony Michael Gow , 2007 Strawberry Hills : Currency Press , 2008 Z1440999 2007 single work drama (taught in 4 units)

'Roland Henning has writer's block. When he tries to explain the situation to a therapist, his story begins to tumble back and forth between his childhood in The Shire and his work as a playwright. At the root of it all is that extraordinary day in primary school which shattered his boyhood and plunged him headlong into the dizzy circus of life and art.'

Source: Belvoir Street website, http://www.belvoir.com.au
Sighted: 05/11/2007
Mrs Dalloway!$!Woolf, V.!$! !$!!$!
The Bell Jar and Selected Poems!$!Plath, S.!$! !$!!$!
The Golden Notebook and Memoirs of a Survivor!$!Lessings, S.!$! !$!!$!
Human Traces and Engleby!$!Faulks, S.!$! !$!!$!
y separately published work icon The Fortunes of Richard Mahony Michael Gow , Sydney : Currency Press Playbox Theatre , 2002 Z980470 2002 single work drama (taught in 1 units)

'As Richard Mahony struggles with survival, identity and sanity, with one foot in the old country and a toe-hold in the new, his life gallops alongside the great events of the nineteenth century. Written with enormous emotional power, this is the spiralling story of a nation’s turbulent adolescence.' (Publisher's abstract.)
The Hours!$!Cunningham, M.!$! !$!!$!
Touched with Fire!$!Jamison, K.R.!$! !$!!$!

Degrees

Bachelor of Arts (Honours)

Description

'Minds, Madness and Literature' explores literary responses to the questions of 'What is the mind, what is madness, and what is the relationship between creativity and mental health?' Once considered the seat of the soul, the human mind has been rendered a scientific captive in recent history. Literature offers one form of testimonial response or 'protest' to this, and is perhaps a site of illumination whereby we can make better sense of contemporary existence, and the connections between creativity and wellbeing. The writers and texts on this course explore, for example, the science of the brain as well metaphysical explanations of madness, and consider how various theological, theoretical, philosophical, sociological and scientific theories have shaped and reshaped our understanding and experience of madness, and what it is to be human.

Other Details

Levels: Undergraduate - Honours
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