When "the words don't fit you": Reflections on Madness and Nonsense

Abstract

Divided into three substantial chapters, this dissertation centres on the interconnections of madness and nonsense. In particular, the introduction analyzes theories on nonsense literature, and the binaric logics that separately structure the discursive fields of these two phenomena. In this section, there is also a deconstruction of the problematics of analyzing nonsense as a literary technique without the influence of mad studies. The first chapter then moves to take on the figure of the Western serial killer, and the hermeneutic projects that the media takes on when reporting on his “senseless” crimes. Arguing that the labelling of the serial killer’s crimes as “nonsensical” demonstrates a particular aesthetic that works to associate madness with danger, disease, fear, and hatred within the public imaginary, this dissertation offers an analysis through a reading of Lynn Crosbie’s Paul’s Case. In the final chapter, this dissertation employs Margaret Atwood’s Surfacing and Emma Donoghue’s The Wonder to consider nonsensical madness within the context of feminine subjectivity. Considering autotheory as a feminist hermeneutic practice then leads into the author’s own experiences as a mad person. This dissertation aims to consider how to engage with nonsensically mad feminine texts, and the ethics of the hermeneutics of mad reading-projects.