The Depiction of Hysterical Women in Fin de Siècle Literature
HANNAH HANIF
" The hysterical female was interpreted alternatively as a victim of bewitchment to be pitied and the devil ' s soul mate to be despised " ( Micale , 1995 : 20 )
The idea of a hysterical woman has always threatened the majority , and treated as a danger to society , thus they must be punished . “ The fear of the hysterical woman is also a fear that implies that madness or deviance is rendered visible on and through the body ” ( Bankey , 2001 : 37 ), meaning that often women who were displaying mental health symptoms or wanted to be independent from the men in their lives , were
labelled as hysterical and ostracised from their community . Therefore , I wanted to explore these ideas further in my creative piece in the form of photography , deemed as the closest art form to reality . As mentioned , it was believed that hysteria in women was “ visible on and through the body ”, I wanted to test this theory in my project by having two sides of a ‘ hysterical ’ woman , one from the fin de siècle period as a
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