Depression and Narrative

Hilary Clark

Description

Depression and Narrative examines stories of depression in the context of recent scholarship on illness and narrative, which up to this point has largely focused on physical illness and disability. Contributors from a number of disciplinary perspectives address these narrative accounts of depression, by both sufferers and those who treat them, as they appear in memoirs, diaries, novels, poems, oral interviews, fact sheets, blogs, films, and television shows. Together, they explore the stories we tell about depression: its contested causes; its gendering; the transformations in identity that it entails; and the problems it presents for communication, associated as it is with stigma and shame.

Unlike certain physical illnesses, such as cancer, depression is stigmatized—sometimes as a nonproblem (the sufferer should "snap out of it") and sometimes as the slippery slope to madness. Thus, depression narratives have their work cut out for them. This book highlights the work these stories do, including bringing meaning to sufferers, explaining depression, justifying therapies and treatments, and reducing the burden of shame—accounting for a suffering that is, in the end, unaccountable.
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments

Introduction: Depression and Narrative
Hilary Clark

I. Negotiating Illness Identity and Stigma

1. My Symptoms, Myself: Reading Mental Illness Memoirs for Identity Assumptions
Jennifer Radden

2. The Language of Madness: Representing Bipolar Disorder in Kay Redfield Jamison’s An Unquiet Mind and Kate Millett’s The Loony-Bin Trip
Debra Beilke

3. Winter Tales: Comedy and Romance Story-Types in Narratives of Depression
Brenda Dyer

4. “Repenting Prodigal”: Confession, Conversion, and Shame in William Cowper’s Adelphi
Hilary Clark

5. Leonid Andreev’s Construction of Melancholy
Frederick H. White

II. Gender and Depression

6. Storying Sadness: Representations of Depression in the Writings of Sylvia Plath, Louise Glück, and Tracy Thompson
Suzanne England, Carol Ganzer, and Carol Tosone

7. “Addiction got me what I needed”: Depression and Drug Addiction in Elizabeth Wurtzel’s Memoirs
Joanne Muzak

8. Narrating the Emotional Woman: Uptake and Gender in Discourses on Depression
Kimberly Emmons

9. Fact Sheets as Gendered Narratives of Depression
Linda M. McMullen

III. Depression across the Media

10. A Dark Web:Depression, Writing, and the Internet
Kiki Benzon

11. A Meditation on Depression, Time, and Narrative Peregrination in the Film The Hours
Diane R. Wiener

12. Therapy Culture and TV: The Sopranos as a Depression Narrative
Deborah Staines

IV. Literary Therapies

13. For the Relief of Melancholy: The Early Chinese Novel as Antidepressant
Andrew Schonebaum

14. Manic-Depressive Narration and the Hermeneutics of Countertransference: Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Mark A. Clark

V. Depression and the Limits of Narrative

15. Writing Self/Delusion:Subjectivity and Scriptotherapy in Emily Holmes Coleman’s The Shutter of Snow
Sophie Blanch

16. Depressing Books: W. G. Sebald and the Narratives of History
Eluned Summers-Bremner

List of Contributors
Index

Sujets

• Abnormal psychology
• Psychotherapy

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 09 octobre 2008
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780791477595
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

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Depression and Narrative

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Depression and Narrative

Telling the Dark

Edited by Hilary Clark

Published by State University of New York Press, Albany

© 2008 State University of New York

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.

For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY www.sunypress.edu

Production by Diane Ganeles Marketing by Michael Campochiaro

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data

Depression and narrative : telling the dark / [edited by] Hilary Clark. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN: 978-0-7914-7569-0 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Melancholy in literature. 2. Depression, Mental, in literature. 3. Mental illness in literature I. Clark, Hilary Anne, 1955–

PN56.M4D47 2008 889'.933561—dc22

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

2007047994

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Contents

Introduction: Depression and Narrative Hilary Clark

I. Negotiating Illness Identity and Stigma

Chapter 1 Reading Mental IllnessMy Symptoms, Myself: Memoirs for Identity Assumptions Jennifer Radden

Chapter 2 The Language of Madness: Representing Bipolar Disorder in Kay Redfield Jamison’sAn Unquiet Mindand Kate Millett’sThe Loony-Bin Trip Debra Beilke

Chapter 3 Comedy and Romance Story-TypesWinter Tales: in Narratives of Depression Brenda Dyer

Chapter 4 Confession, Conversion,“Repenting Prodigal”: and Shame in William Cowper’sAdelphi Hilary Clark

Chapter 5 Leonid Andreev’s Construction of Melancholy Frederick H. White

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Contents

II. Gender and Depression

Chapter 6 Storying Sadness: Representations of Depression in the Writings of Sylvia Plath, Louise Glück, and Tracy Thompson 83 Suzanne England, Carol Ganzer, and Carol Tosone

Chapter 7 Depression and“Addiction got me what I needed”: Drug Addiction in Elizabeth Wurtzel’s Memoirs Joanne Muzak

Chapter 8 Uptake andNarrating the Emotional Woman: Gender in Discourses on Depression Kimberly Emmons

Chapter 9 Fact Sheets as Gendered Narratives of Depression Linda M. McMullen

III. Depression across the Media

Chapter 10 A Dark Web: Kiki Benzon

Depression, Writing, and the Internet

Chapter 11 A Meditation on Depression, Time, and Narrative Peregrination in the FilmThe Hours Diane R. Wiener

Chapter 12 Therapy Culture and TV: Depression Narrative Deborah Staines

The Sopranosas a

IV. Literary Therapies

Chapter 13 For the Relief of Melancholy: Novel as Antidepressant Andrew Schonebaum

The Early Chinese

Chapter 14 Manic-Depressive Narration and the Hermeneutics of Countertransference: Coleridge’sThe Rime of the Ancient Mariner Mark A. Clark

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Contents

V. Depression and the Limits of Narrative

Chapter 15 Writing Self/Delusion: Subjectivity and Scriptotherapy in Emily Holmes Coleman’s The Shutter of Snow Sophie Blanch

Chapter 16 Depressing Books: Narratives of History Eluned Summers-Bremner

List of Contributors

Index

W. G. Sebald and the

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