Periodic Reporting for period 1 - MadLand (Madness in Fairy Land: (Re)Imagining Deviance in the Age of Psychiatry, 1820-1900)
Período documentado: 2021-10-15 hasta 2023-10-14
The MadLand project investigates literature’s creative reaction to the rigid dividing lines between (hetero)normativity and deviance as established by early psychiatry, then incorporated into the dominant cultural discourse, and still very much debated today. In its transatlantic and interdisciplinary exploration of 19th-century British, French, and US medicine and literature, MadLand demonstrates that in Europe and North America fairy-tale and medical discourses on deviance and abnormality similarly intersected, influencing each other and exchanging knowledge and visual representations.
In the 19th century, writers reworked canonised fairy tales or experimented with fairy-tale settings, characters, motifs, and topoi to represent contemporaneous mental pathologies, psychological abnormalities, and sexual perversions. Focusing on the representation of deviance in fairy-tale narratives as a transnational, transcultural, and translinguistic motif that challenged nationally codified barriers, the overall objectives of MadLand are to expand our understanding of the fairy-tale traditions in 19th-century Britain, France, and the US from a comparative perspective, and to demonstrate how fairy tales contributed to the cultural – and influenced the medical – discourse on abnormality in Europe and North America.
In the 19th century, writers reworked canonised fairy tales or experimented with fairy-tale settings, characters, motifs, and topoi to represent contemporaneous mental pathologies, psychological abnormalities, and sexual perversions. Focusing on the representation of deviance in fairy-tale narratives as a transnational, transcultural, and translinguistic motif that challenged nationally codified barriers, the overall objectives of MadLand are to expand our understanding of the fairy-tale traditions in 19th-century Britain, France, and the US from a comparative perspective, and to demonstrate how fairy tales contributed to the cultural – and influenced the medical – discourse on abnormality in Europe and North America.
PUBLICATIONS
- Alessandro Cabiati and Lewis Seifert (Eds), "Norm and Transgression in the Fairy-Tale Tradition" (provisional title), a Special Issue of "Marvels & Tales: Journal of Fairy-Tale Studies", 39.1 forthcoming 2025 (proposal accepted).
- Laura Tosi and Alessandro Cabiati, ‘Introduction: Fairy Tales and Other Horrors’, in Literature, vol. 3 (ISSN 2410-9789), "Severed Limbs and Monstrous Appetites: (Re)Defining Fairy-Tale Horror from the Seventeenth Century to the Present", forthcoming 2023 (accepted, in print).
- Laura Tosi and Alessandro Cabiati (Eds), "Severed Limbs and Monstrous Appetites: (Re)Defining Fairy-Tale Horror from the Seventeenth Century to the Present", a Special Issue of Literature 2023, vol. 3 (ISSN 2410-9789) (DOI will be included when the 'Introduction' is published).
- Alessandro Cabiati, ‘Blue Chambers, Bluebooks, and Contes Bleus: Gothic Terror and Female Deviance in Nineteenth-Century Adaptations of “Bluebeard”', in Humanities 2023, vol. 12(4), 60, pp. 1-14 (ISSN 2076-0787).
- Alessandro Cabiati, ‘Dreaming (and) Insanity: "Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland" Through the Looking-Glass of Victorian Psychology’. Submitted to Journal of Victorian Culture.
CONFERENCE ORGANISED
- 06/2023: Alessandro Cabiati and Lewis Seifert, "Norm and Transgression in the Fairy-Tale Tradition: (Non)Normative Identities, Forms, and Writings", Brown University. Keynote Speakers: Maria Tatar, Cristina Bacchilega, Anne E. Duggan, Laura Tosi.
CONFERENCE KEYNOTE ADDRESS
- 03/2023: Alessandro Cabiati, ‘Marvellous Abnormalities: Fairy Tales, Decadence, and Deviance in the Late Nineteenth Century’, "Decadence and the Fairy Tale", Goldsmiths, University of London.
CONFERENCE PAPERS
- 12/2022: Alessandro Cabiati, ‘"We’re all mad here”: l’adattamento di Alice nell’ambito medico-psichiatrico a cavallo tra due secoli (1865-1940)’, "In the Mirror of Alice: The Self and the Other", Suor Orsola Benincasa, Naples.
- 01/2023: Alessandro Cabiati, ‘Gothic Terror and Female Deviance in Nineteenth-Century Adaptations of “Bluebeard”', "Gothic Networks: Webs, Traps, and Global Trends", Gothic Association of New Zealand and Australia.
- 03/2023: Alessandro Cabiati, ‘Magical Maladies: (Dis)Enchanting Mental Illness in Nineteenth-Century Fairy Tales’, "Magic: Enchantment and Disenchantment", Christ Church, University of Oxford.
RESEARCH SEMINARS
- 10/2022: Alessandro Cabiati, ‘Gender Subversions and the Metamorphosis of Nonconforming Desires: A Comparative Analysis of “Le Mouton” (1697) and “Jouvencelle-Jouvenceau” (1894)’, Brown University.
- 10/2023: Alessandro Cabiati, ‘When Monsters Become Real: The Fairy-Tale Language of Psychological Deviance’, Brown University.
COMMUNICATION AND PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT
- Cafoscarinews interviewed the researcher about the MadLand project.
- The international conference "Norm and Transgression in the Fairy-Tale Tradition" was enthusiastically reviewed by the Carterhaugh School of Folklore and the Fantastic on their website.
- After its publication, the essay ‘Gothic Terror and Female Deviance in Nineteenth-Century Adaptations of “Bluebeard”’ (Humanities 2023) was included in the required readings for a course (ENG 608B) part of the Master of Arts in English at National University (USA).
- The paper ‘l’adattamento di Alice nell’ambito medico-psichiatrico a cavallo tra due secoli (1865-1940)’, presented at the conference "In the Mirror of Alice", was streamed live on the Facebook and You Tube pages of the Università degli Studi Suor Orsola Benincasa.
- The recording of the researcher’s keynote talk on ‘Fairy Tales, Decadence, and Deviance in the Late Nineteenth Century’ is freely available on the website of the British Association of Decadence Studies (BADS).
- The researcher contributed to the creation of both the conference as well as the MadLand project websites, which are regularly updated with the latest information on the project.
- Alessandro Cabiati and Lewis Seifert (Eds), "Norm and Transgression in the Fairy-Tale Tradition" (provisional title), a Special Issue of "Marvels & Tales: Journal of Fairy-Tale Studies", 39.1 forthcoming 2025 (proposal accepted).
- Laura Tosi and Alessandro Cabiati, ‘Introduction: Fairy Tales and Other Horrors’, in Literature, vol. 3 (ISSN 2410-9789), "Severed Limbs and Monstrous Appetites: (Re)Defining Fairy-Tale Horror from the Seventeenth Century to the Present", forthcoming 2023 (accepted, in print).
- Laura Tosi and Alessandro Cabiati (Eds), "Severed Limbs and Monstrous Appetites: (Re)Defining Fairy-Tale Horror from the Seventeenth Century to the Present", a Special Issue of Literature 2023, vol. 3 (ISSN 2410-9789) (DOI will be included when the 'Introduction' is published).
- Alessandro Cabiati, ‘Blue Chambers, Bluebooks, and Contes Bleus: Gothic Terror and Female Deviance in Nineteenth-Century Adaptations of “Bluebeard”', in Humanities 2023, vol. 12(4), 60, pp. 1-14 (ISSN 2076-0787).
- Alessandro Cabiati, ‘Dreaming (and) Insanity: "Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland" Through the Looking-Glass of Victorian Psychology’. Submitted to Journal of Victorian Culture.
CONFERENCE ORGANISED
- 06/2023: Alessandro Cabiati and Lewis Seifert, "Norm and Transgression in the Fairy-Tale Tradition: (Non)Normative Identities, Forms, and Writings", Brown University. Keynote Speakers: Maria Tatar, Cristina Bacchilega, Anne E. Duggan, Laura Tosi.
CONFERENCE KEYNOTE ADDRESS
- 03/2023: Alessandro Cabiati, ‘Marvellous Abnormalities: Fairy Tales, Decadence, and Deviance in the Late Nineteenth Century’, "Decadence and the Fairy Tale", Goldsmiths, University of London.
CONFERENCE PAPERS
- 12/2022: Alessandro Cabiati, ‘"We’re all mad here”: l’adattamento di Alice nell’ambito medico-psichiatrico a cavallo tra due secoli (1865-1940)’, "In the Mirror of Alice: The Self and the Other", Suor Orsola Benincasa, Naples.
- 01/2023: Alessandro Cabiati, ‘Gothic Terror and Female Deviance in Nineteenth-Century Adaptations of “Bluebeard”', "Gothic Networks: Webs, Traps, and Global Trends", Gothic Association of New Zealand and Australia.
- 03/2023: Alessandro Cabiati, ‘Magical Maladies: (Dis)Enchanting Mental Illness in Nineteenth-Century Fairy Tales’, "Magic: Enchantment and Disenchantment", Christ Church, University of Oxford.
RESEARCH SEMINARS
- 10/2022: Alessandro Cabiati, ‘Gender Subversions and the Metamorphosis of Nonconforming Desires: A Comparative Analysis of “Le Mouton” (1697) and “Jouvencelle-Jouvenceau” (1894)’, Brown University.
- 10/2023: Alessandro Cabiati, ‘When Monsters Become Real: The Fairy-Tale Language of Psychological Deviance’, Brown University.
COMMUNICATION AND PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT
- Cafoscarinews interviewed the researcher about the MadLand project.
- The international conference "Norm and Transgression in the Fairy-Tale Tradition" was enthusiastically reviewed by the Carterhaugh School of Folklore and the Fantastic on their website.
- After its publication, the essay ‘Gothic Terror and Female Deviance in Nineteenth-Century Adaptations of “Bluebeard”’ (Humanities 2023) was included in the required readings for a course (ENG 608B) part of the Master of Arts in English at National University (USA).
- The paper ‘l’adattamento di Alice nell’ambito medico-psichiatrico a cavallo tra due secoli (1865-1940)’, presented at the conference "In the Mirror of Alice", was streamed live on the Facebook and You Tube pages of the Università degli Studi Suor Orsola Benincasa.
- The recording of the researcher’s keynote talk on ‘Fairy Tales, Decadence, and Deviance in the Late Nineteenth Century’ is freely available on the website of the British Association of Decadence Studies (BADS).
- The researcher contributed to the creation of both the conference as well as the MadLand project websites, which are regularly updated with the latest information on the project.
PROGRESS BEYOND STATE OF THE ART
The relation between psychology and the fairy tale has almost exclusively been studied from a contemporary psychoanalytic approach, which has attempted to unravel the meanings of fairy-tale imagery and symbols but has largely neglected the historical connections between psychiatric and fairy-tale discourses in Europe and North America. MadLand examines madness and deviance in their 19th-century medical and fairy-tale contexts, breaking new ground on the inter-reactive interplay between psychology and literature that can inform current mono-cultural and mono-disciplinary blind-spots in both fairy-tale research and the history of psychiatry.
EXPECTED RESULTS
MadLand will provide the first analysis of the crucial role of early psychiatry in shaping 19th-century literary fairy tales, determining to what extent the conception of medical deviance has been interpreted, adapted, represented, and ultimately subverted in 19th-century fairy tales. This project will also analyse the impact of the fairy-tale representation of monstrosity on 19th-century psychology, studying how various forms of abnormality throughout the fairy-tale tradition served as reference for the interpretation and subsequent classification of mental disorders.
POTENTIAL IMPACTS
The cultural and medical debate on what constitutes deviance is as relevant in present times as it was in the 19th century. In its exploration of the emergence of psychological deviance and its representation in 19th-century culture from a comparative viewpoint, MadLand contributes to current discussions on perceived norms and deviations of sexual orientation and gender expression. Thus far, specific focus has been given to the following issues: the representation of nonconforming and nonbinary gender identities and expressions, and the questioning of normative notions of masculinity and femininity; gender-specific mental conditions, such as female hysteria, and gender similarities and differences in descriptions of sexual deviations, monstrosity, and abnormality; the construction of female identity in 19th-century culture, and the subversion of expected gender roles and stereotypes in fairy-tale narratives.
The relation between psychology and the fairy tale has almost exclusively been studied from a contemporary psychoanalytic approach, which has attempted to unravel the meanings of fairy-tale imagery and symbols but has largely neglected the historical connections between psychiatric and fairy-tale discourses in Europe and North America. MadLand examines madness and deviance in their 19th-century medical and fairy-tale contexts, breaking new ground on the inter-reactive interplay between psychology and literature that can inform current mono-cultural and mono-disciplinary blind-spots in both fairy-tale research and the history of psychiatry.
EXPECTED RESULTS
MadLand will provide the first analysis of the crucial role of early psychiatry in shaping 19th-century literary fairy tales, determining to what extent the conception of medical deviance has been interpreted, adapted, represented, and ultimately subverted in 19th-century fairy tales. This project will also analyse the impact of the fairy-tale representation of monstrosity on 19th-century psychology, studying how various forms of abnormality throughout the fairy-tale tradition served as reference for the interpretation and subsequent classification of mental disorders.
POTENTIAL IMPACTS
The cultural and medical debate on what constitutes deviance is as relevant in present times as it was in the 19th century. In its exploration of the emergence of psychological deviance and its representation in 19th-century culture from a comparative viewpoint, MadLand contributes to current discussions on perceived norms and deviations of sexual orientation and gender expression. Thus far, specific focus has been given to the following issues: the representation of nonconforming and nonbinary gender identities and expressions, and the questioning of normative notions of masculinity and femininity; gender-specific mental conditions, such as female hysteria, and gender similarities and differences in descriptions of sexual deviations, monstrosity, and abnormality; the construction of female identity in 19th-century culture, and the subversion of expected gender roles and stereotypes in fairy-tale narratives.