MEN AND MADNESS: Representing Male Psychopathology, Mental Disorder and
Deviancy in Modern and Contemporary Culture

English Research Institute, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK

28 - 30 June 2007

Confirmed keynote speakers:

Susan Bordo, University of Kentucky
Elisabeth Bronfen, University of Zurich
Richard Collier, University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Mark Micale, University of Illnois
Sally Shuttleworth, University of Oxford

Traditionally it has been women and other social groups marked by an alleged
Œdifference¹ from standards of sanity and reason who have been most
vulnerable to designations of Œmadness¹. The twentieth-century rise of
postmodernity, however, has introduced a remarkable shift in perspective.
Now it is femininity which is widely associated with sanity, commonsense and
progress, whereas masculinity has come to occupy a position of volatile
aberrance, anachronicity and Œcrisis¹. While masculinity used to deem itself
incontestably rooted in the faculty of reason, many of its most
characteristic traits are now being recognised as Œsymptoms¹ of a variety of
psychopathologies, mental disorders or cognitive impairments. In the age of
postmodernity, the normative standard of masculinity, and its propensity for
oppressive and violent self-assertion especially, has come to be interpreted
as social deviance and appears at present to be undergoing radical cultural
revaluation as a pathological affliction or compulsive disorder requiring
urgent therapeutic attention. If masculinity is currently perceived to be
Œin crisis¹, then this is mainly due to the fact that many of the
attributes, which traditionally constituted its strength and thus
legitimised its hegemonic status, tend now to be read as indicative of an
acutely troubled psychology of the male self.

Contributors to the conference are encouraged to trace the changes in our
cultural perception of what makes a Œhealthy¹, Œsane¹, Œgood¹ and Œnormal¹
man, and to do so by exploring the correlation between gender,
psychopathology and post/modernity, as well as the explicit or alleged
gender-specificity of certain mental disorders (e.g. hysteria, paranoia,
depression, schizophrenia, autism). The conference is interdisciplinary and
proposals are invited from the full spectrum of current scholarly, creative
and intellectual enquiry, including psychology, sociology, history,
literature, art, cultural theory, criminology, law, medical science,
politics, philosophy and psychoanalysis.
 
Proposals (200-300 words) for 20-minute presentations should be submitted to
Professor Berthold Schoene (b.schoene_at_mmu.ac.uk), the conference organiser,
by no later than 1 February 2007. A registration form will become available
at about the same time.

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Received on Fri Aug 11 2006 - 15:27:56 EDT