| Title |
McLean, Angela_MENG_2019 |
| Alternative Title |
The New York Lunatic Asylum, The Opal, and Mid-Nineteenth-Century American Asylum Literature |
| Creator |
McLean, Angela |
| Collection Name |
Master of English |
| Description |
After spending two years and three months in the New York Lunatic Asylum at Utica, Phebe Davis wrote, "When I was in the asylum they locked me up when they pleased, but what did I care for that as long as they had no key that would fit my mouth. I knew that I should live through it all, and I told them I should, and that when I got out they would hear from me" (Geller and Harris 49). Davis self published her survival memoir in 1855-one of the first texts published by a once-incarcerated mad woman. Although most readers, and even some fellow survivors, dismissed her writing as insane babble, Davis reclaimed her voice and spoke back to the doctors, the institutions, and the society that created and supported them. She asserts, "I can wear them out, which they cannot me, and I still choose my own position" (49-50). Davis's midnineteenth century America saw the rise of modern psychiatry, the earliest asylums for the insane, and extraordinary writing about madness by those who experienced it. |
| Subject |
Mental illness; Social norms; Literature |
| Keywords |
Lunatic Asylum; Psychiatry; Mid-ninteethcentury America; Survivors |
| Digital Publisher |
Stewart Library, Weber State University |
| Date |
2019 |
| Language |
eng |
| Rights |
The author has granted Weber State University Archives a limited, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to reproduce their theses, in whole or in part, in electronic or paper form and to make it available to the general public at no charge. The author retains all other rights. |
| Source |
University Archives Electronic Records; Master of Education in Curriculum and Instruction. Stewart Library, Weber State University |
| Format |
application/pdf |
| ARK |
ark:/87278/s6n08txg |
| Setname |
wsu_smt |
| ID |
96769 |
| Reference URL |
https://digital.weber.edu/ark:/87278/s6n08txg |
