Lunacy under Lock and Key: A Comparison of the Portrayal of Madness in Victorian and Neo-Victorian Fiction
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2016-07-01
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en
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This thesis will research how mentally ill people are portrayed in works of fiction of the Victorian era as well as how they are portrayed in Neo-Victorian fiction. The research contrasts two Victorian novels, published in the early to mid-Victorian era, with two Neo-Victorian novels published in the twenty-first century. This study will answer the question how Victorian novels describe mentally ill people as part of society compared to Neo-Victorian novels. It will do so by close reading these novels on the bases of three specific features; language use, living accommodations and the looks and behaviour of mad characters. These separate findings will then be compared.
Research will show that the Victorian novels feature mentally ill people at the margins of society. They are hidden away and interacted with minimally. However, Neo-Victorian novels will do the opposite. They foreground the mentally ill people and focus on their lives and their problems.
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