Madness in Susanna Kaysen’s Girl, Interrupted: A Focouldian Reading

somaye sabetnia¹

1) Holder of Master Degree in English Literature. Islamic Azad University, Karaj Branch

Publication : The Third International Conference on Modern Researches in Humanities(3mrhconf.com)
Abstract :
This paper is accomplished to probe Susanna Kaysen’s memoir Girl, Interrupted in the light of Michel Foucault’s theory of madness comprehensively set forth in his History of Madness (1961). In his archaeological study of madness, Foucault introduces a new way to perceive madness and its association with dominant discourses. He argues that the concept of madness is constructed within the social context, and different institutions affect its definition. Furthermore, he takes into consideration how each era treats madness and affirms that in modern times, people considered mad are exiled out of cities, confined in madhouses, and later in clinics where they are treated with drugs. Set after World War II, Girl, Interrupted highlights women’s conditions in which they had to become a housewife and ignore following their own desires as well as shows how protagonist is labeled “mad,” and is hence impelled to go to asylums where patients are under the vigilant surveillance of the authorities to go through the process of “normalization.” To discern how she is considered “mad,” this article probes the dominant discourse of the time, when the story takes place, under the impact of social and political conditions. Furthermore, this study examines how a so-called mad considered “Other” and treated after being confined by the disciplinary system of the asylum in a panoptic world ; in addition to, describes the aim of treatment is to punish and control a patient not to cure.
Keywords : reason vs. unreason dominant discourse normalization discipline panoptic world Other clinical treatment