The Literature of Madness - A Critical Study of the Madhouse in Gothic Literature

Oct 6, 2026

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This thesis presents a critical study of British and American Gothic prose representations of madness and the madhouse, tracing historical changes in asylum practice from 1846 to 2014. While Gothic scholarship often treats madness as a readily identifiable motif, few studies explain why the genre’s fascination with the madhouse endures beyond its late-eighteenth-century origins. Using hauntology, the work “gothicises” the medical institution to argue that Gothic fictions critique and politicise contemporary discourses on mental illness.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages236

Reading Time6 h 3 min

AccessFree to download

ABSTRACT

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

AUTHOR’S DECLARATION

LIST OF FIGURES

APPENDIX: TIMELINE OF THE MADHOUSE

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER ONE: GOTHIC TRUTHS IN THE ASYLUM

CHAPTER TWO: H.P. LOVECRAFT AND THE MADHOUSE

CHAPTER THREE: [S]CARE IN THE COMMUNITY

CHAPTER FOUR: PATRICK MCGRATH’S ASYLUMS

CHAPTER FIVE: THE NEO-VICTORIAN MADHOUSE

CONCLUSION: SPECTRES OF MADNESS

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The Literature of Madness: A Critical Study of the Madhouse in Gothic Literature Benjamin E. Noad Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of Doctor of Philosophy School of Arts and Humanities Division of Literature and Languages University of Stirling July 2018 ABSTRACT This thesis is a critical study of British and American Gothic prose representations of madness and the madhouse. This focuses on historical changes in asylum practice from the mid-nineteenth to the early twenty-first century, specifically from 1846 to 2014. While Gothic scholarship generally regards madness as being identifiable within most works of the genre, few studies have attempted to explain why it is that the Gothic’s fascination with madness has endured beyond its literary origins in the late eighteenth century. Surprisingly, no full-length critical study has yet historically documented the Gothic mode’s longstanding preoccupation with the madhouse, especially given how numerous these encounters in Gothic fictions are. For this reason, the present study turns its attention exclusively towards the institutional figure of the madhouse: a territory where madness has already been labelled into existence. The object of this thesis is to demonstrate how the Gothic text is haunted by notions of madness, and how in turn, the madhouse is haunted by discourses ofthe Gothic. This reading – informed by hauntology – of the Gothic madhouse space argues that by ‘gothicising’ the medical institution, Gothic fictions appeal to a memory of what has come before and anticipates a future for madness in Western culture. For this reason, Gothic encounters with the madhouse (where madness is simultaneously present and absent) are knowingly engaged with critiquing, politicising, rejecting, or even ignoring, the historical discourses on madness with which they are contemporary. This also examines the genre’s complicity and reciprocity in longstanding and prejudicial attitudes towards mental ill-health. Divided into five historical epochs, this thesis reads: the Sweeney Todd story The String of Pearls (1846); Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s Lady Audley’s Secret (1861-2); Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897); four tales from H.P. Lovecraft including ‘The Tomb’(1917), ‘Beyond the Wall of Sleep’ (1919), The Case of Charles Dexter Ward (1927), and ‘The Thing on the Doorstep’(1933); Robert Bloch’s Psycho (1959); Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1962); Iain Banks’The Wasp Factory (1984); Michael Moorcock’s Mother London (1988); Patrick McGrath’s Spider (1990), Asylum (1991), ‘Ground Zero’(2005) and Trauma (2007); Sarah Waters’ Fingersmith (2002), and John Harwood’s The Asylum (2014) . Contents ABSTRACT.............................................................................................................................. 1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ....................................................................................................3 AUTHOR’S DECLARATION ...............................................................................................4 LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................................................5 APPENDIX: TIMELINE OF THE MADHOUSE ...............................................................6 INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................................8 CHAPTER ONE: GOTHIC TRUTHS IN THE ASYLUM.............................................366 CHAPTER TWO: H.P. LOVECRAFT AND THE MADHOUSE..................................688 CHAPTER THREE: [S]CARE IN THE COMMUNITY………………………………101 CHAPTER FOUR: PATRICK MCGRATH’S ASYLUMS............................................132 CHAPTER FIVE: THE NEO-VICTORIAN MADHOUSE……………………………168 CONCLUSION: SPECTRES OF MADNESS...................................................................197 BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………………………………………

FAQs

What is the main focus of the thesis?

The thesis critically examines how British and American Gothic prose represents madness and the madhouse, including how these representations relate to institutional asylum practice.

Which time period does the thesis cover?

It focuses on historical changes in asylum practice from the mid-nineteenth century through the early twenty-first century, specifically 1846 to 2014.

How does the thesis interpret the Gothic madhouse space?

Informed by hauntology, it argues that Gothic fictions “gothicise” the medical institution—invoking memory of what came before and anticipating futures for madness in Western culture.

Oct 6, 2026

Upload by Himbo