Week 11: Melancholy & Madness

"They inhabit a literary, not a real, madhouse and their function is to illustrate not the state of the insane, or even the thin proximity of madness to sanity, but the follies and delusions of contemporary society" (The Madness of Multitude, 81)

"Falsly the mortal part we blame

Of our depress'd and pond'rous Frame,

Which till the first degrading Sin

Let thee its dull attendant in,

Still with the other did comply;"

("The Spleen," lines 26-30)

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Brainstorming for Final Paper:

Topic:

-Examine three different modes of absorption ("to swallow up or engulf," "to be engrossed," "the disappearance or assimilation into something") and how they are portrayed

-What are the differences between these three modes? Are some more dangerous than others?

-What does the portrayal say about the mode of absorption? Do we find similarities/differences between modes?

Different Modes with Texts:

-"To swallow up or engulf"

1. Laputians --> harmless, humor
2. RED example --> devouring book, harmless?

-"To be engrossed"

1. Laputians? --> eyes pointed inwards, don't pay attention to surroundings unless prompted to do so, starts to get more harmful
2. Greuze painting --> postures & gazes point towards engrossed, seen as good thing in this case, because religious

-"To disappear, be assimilated"

1. The Female Quixote --> Arabella takes on language (provide more evidence and less summary this time), disappearance into the world of romance becomes dangerous

-Texts suggest that based on these three modes, if absorption goes unchecked (or is not for religious purposes) can lead to danger -- i.e. Arabella jumping into lake to prove point. 

-See if can work in The Coquette anywhere