Mental Illness as Cultural Narrative: Contemporary Literature from the Contact Zones between the U.S., Canada, and the Caribbean

作为文化叙事的精神疾病：来自美国、加拿大和加勒比海地区接触区的当代文学

• 批准号: 457488147
• 负责人: Professor Dr. Wilfried Raussert
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Department Anglistik (British and American Studies)
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 资助国家: 德国
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/457488147?language=en
• 关键词: Mental; Illness; Cultural; Narrative; Contemporary

Contemporary times witness a striking increase of the presence of mental illness in society. Identity problems, gender and race conflicts, migration and diaspora experience are driving forces behind this phenomenon. This has also lead to a contemporary boom of mental illness narratives in literature. Centuries of systematic oppression such as slavery, displacement, exploitation, and discrimination have formed and continue to shape human encounters in the Americas. These lived experiences have found their way into literary representations and expressions of mental illness. The proposed project explores mental illness as a cultural narrative in 21st century Caribbean-Canadian and Caribbean-U.S. American literature and as a decolonizing practice and symptom of systematic power asymmetries that can be traced back to the concept of ‘coloniality.’ The research project argues that gender, race/ethnicity, community and experiences of racism, sexism, migration, and diaspora shape mental illness as a cultural narrative. The project is embedded in the context of Hemispheric American Studies and uses an InterAmerican and Critical Disability Studies approach to analyze ‘mental illness’ by close reading of selected novels and stories.

当代见证了社会中精神疾病的显著增加。身份问题、性别和种族冲突、移徙和散居经历是这一现象背后的驱动力。这也导致了当代文学中精神疾病叙事的繁荣。几个世纪以来的系统性压迫，如奴隶制，流离失所，剥削和歧视，已经形成并继续塑造人类在美洲的遭遇。这些生活经验已经进入文学表现和精神疾病的表达。拟议的项目探讨精神疾病作为一种文化叙事在21世纪世纪加勒比-加拿大和加勒比-美国文学和作为一种非殖民化的做法和症状的系统性权力不对称，可以追溯到“殖民"的概念。该研究项目认为，性别，种族/民族，社区和种族主义，性别歧视，移民和散居的经验塑造精神疾病作为一种文化叙事。该项目是嵌入在半球美国研究的背景下，并使用美洲和严重残疾研究的方法来分析“精神疾病”的密切阅读选定的小说和故事。