Project description
Fairy tales in reimagining deviance
Gender and sexuality have emerged as leading topics in today’s cultural and scientific debates across Europe and North America. In the 19th century, early psychiatry formed sharp divisions between ‘normal/abnormal’, ‘moral/deviant’ behaviour and mental illness. This influenced literature, which in turn, has challenged their patriarchal narration, strict standards and reinterpreted the codification of insanity in psychiatry. Many fairy tales from France, Britain and the US outline this process. Building on that, the EU funded MadLand project will conduct ground-breaking, interdisciplinary, transnational, trans-linguistic studies investigating the mutual knowledge-exchange between psychiatry and literature in interpreting and reimagining deviance through a comparative textual analysis of discourse on mental illness and fairy-tales.
Objective
‘Madness in Fairy Land’ (MadLand) is an interdisciplinary exploration of fairy-tale and medical discourses on deviance and abnormality in 19th-century Britain, France, and the US. The project demonstrates the mutual knowledge-exchange between psychiatry and literature in interpreting, understanding, and (re)imagining deviance. In its comparative textual analysis of treatises on mental illness and fairy-tale narratives, MadLand provides the first transnational and translinguistic investigation: (1) of the ways in which 19th-century literary fairy tales reflected, incorporated, and questioned medical interpretations of moral and psychological deviance and of abnormal behaviour; and (2) of how the fairy-tale imagery and language of monstrosity, in turn, influenced and served as a point of reference for the codification of insanity by psychiatry in its formative period, 1820-1900.
MadLand examines portrayals of diverse characters and themes in fairy-tale narratives that challenged hegemonic views of (hetero)normativity. It investigates literature’s creative reaction to the rigid dividing lines between normality and deviance as established by early psychiatry, then incorporated into the dominant cultural discourse, and still very much debated today. Exploring the emergence of psychological deviance and its representation in 19th-century fairy tales from a comparative viewpoint, MadLand contributes to current discussions on perceived norms and deviations of sexual orientation and gender expression, shedding light on medical and literary debates around ab/normal behaviour, monstrosity, gender, and sexuality in Europe and North America.
As an expert in the relations between literature and medicine and 19th-century discourses of decadence, I am especially qualified to undertake this research, which will give me the opportunity to build on my existing knowledge in comparative literature as well as to acquire new skills and competences in fairy-tale and gender studies.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.1.3. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
MAIN PROGRAMME
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H2020-EU.1.3.2. - Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2020
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
30123 VENEZIA
Italy
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.