![]() Specifically, the terms “lunacy” or “madness” have denominated various understandings of mental disorders throughout history. This paper aims to study cases of “mad women” in the short fiction of the American writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman and the Turkish journalist and writer Mine Söğüt.ĭespite various different conceptions of mental disorders throughout its history, the following is a current definition in the Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders:Ī clinically significant behavioral or psychological syndrome or pattern … associated with present distress (a painful symptom) or disability … Whatever its original cause, it must currently be considered a manifestation of a behavioral, psychological, or biological dysfunction in the person (xxii). A close study of these female images of lunacy reveals that the concept of madness is gendered and becomes synonymous with women. Because Nora is “transgressive,” she is labelled “mad,” a recurrent label for “disobedient” female figures in a multitude of literary texts. He accuses her of her immorality, lack of principles, faithlessness, adding that she has lost all ties with rationality. In his disbelief and outrage at Nora’s claim to freedom and independence, her husband declares her mad, reproaching her for abandoning her sacred duties of mother and wife. Ufuk GÜNDOĜAN (Dokuz Eylül Universität, Izmir – Türkei) ![]() Images of Female Lunacy in the Fiction of Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Mine Söğüt ĭr. ![]()
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