ENGL 347 - Contemporary Developments in Literature & Culture - Madness and Mental Illness in Modern Film
This course examines the theme of insanity in films from the last three decades as it reflects and critiques popular views of American society and selfhood. Special attention is given to the relative values our culture places on rationality vs. irrationality and conformity vs. difference. We'll look at the madman as genius, savior, victim and threat. Madness has been used as a lens through which to examine cultural standards of normality and sanity, defining these by their supposed opposite. In addition, the diagnosis of mental illness has been used to draw lines of right and wrong, normal and abnormal, and to isolate those expressing subversive views and to designate difference as something to be cured. Nearly 30% of Oscar-winning films since 1975 have taken insanity as a major theme, with many more nominated and more winners making minor references to madness, using the figure of the mad person to express our deepest fears about human nature (unrestrained) and about the effects of living in an increasingly technological and soulless culture where the Self is marginalized. Films may include Equus, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Ordinary People, The Fisher King, Six Degrees of Separation, Silence of the Lambs, Blue Sky, Heavenly Creatures, Don Juan DeMarco, 12 Monkeys, Velvet Goldmine, Total Eclipse, Shine, Good Will Hunting, Girl Interrupted, A Beautiful Mind, and Gothika, with supplementary readings from Foucault, Sass, and Gilman.
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