American Nervousness: Mental Health and Madness in American Literature and Culture

Catalog description

This course focuses on psychological themes and subjects in American literature and culture, with a particular emphasis on the literature of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Students will read a wide variety of texts from different genres and disciplines in order to explore the concept of American Nervousness, physician G.M. Beard's provocative notion that American life could foster a unique form of mental disease. We will examine how madness is represented in literature, how literary texts reflect and respond to historical developments in psychiatry, and how psychiatry and concepts of mental health are themselves products of particular historical moments in American culture. Prerequisite Course(s): Prerequisite: Take one course in each group: Group 1 (FCWR 101 or FCWR 111 or WRIT 101 or WRIT 111) and Group 2 (FCWR 151 or FCWR 161 or WRIT 151 or WRIT 161) Classroom Hours - Laboratory and/or Studio Hours – Course Credits: 3-0-3