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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN DIEGO Documents in Madness: Mental Disability and Affective Play in Twentieth Century Irish and Caribbean Literatures A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Literature by Jennifer Anne Marchisotto Committee in charge: Professor Michael Davidson, Chair Professor Kimberly Devlin Professor Brian Goldfarb Professor Margaret Loose Professor Daniel Vitkus Professor Winifred Woodhull 2019 Copyright Jennifer Anne Marchisotto, 2019 All rights reserved. The Dissertation of Jennifer Marchisotto is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication on microfilm and electronically: Chair University of California San Diego 2019 iii DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to Paul, Linda, and Amy Marchisotto. iv EPIGRAPH Madness and non-madness, reason and unreason are confusedly implicated in each other, inseparable as they do not yet exist, and existing for each other, in relation to each other, in the exchange that separates them. Michel Foucault, History of Madness Scriveners learn several mortal tongues as children, before they begin learning the gods’ language. This helps them understand the flexibility of language and of the mind itself, for there are many concepts that exist in some languages that cannot even be approximated in others. This is how the gods’ tongue works; it allows the conceptualization of the impossible. And this is why the best scriveners can never be trusted. N. K. Jemisin, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms Life doesn’t make narrative sense. Josh Groban, Crazy-Ex Girlfriend v TABLE OF CONTENTS SIGNATURE PAGE ......................................................................................................... iii DEDICATION ................................................................................................................... iv EPIGRAPH ......................................................................................................................... v TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................... vi LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................... vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................. viii VITA ................................................................................................................................. x ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION ......................................................................... xii INTRODUCTION: “Atoms as they Fall upon the Mind”: Mental Disability and Twentieth Century Aesthetics ................................................................................. 1 CHAPTER 1: Literary Adjacent Women: In-Between the Narratives of Ophelia, Lucia Joyce, and Issy in Finnegans Wake ...................................................................... 35 CHAPTER 2: “Revolving it All”: Games and Cognitive Difference in Beckett ........... 110 CHAPTER 3: Affect, Animality, and Animacy: At the Intersection of Trauma and Mental Disability in Cereus Blooms at Night and Wide Sargasso Sea ........................... 165 CONCLUSION: On Not Leaving it Alone ..................................................................... 216 vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1.1: Illustration by Lucia Joyce for "The Mime of Mick, Nick, and the Maggies" (1934) .................................................................................................................... 46 Figure 1.2: Finnegans Wake p. 260, the first page of "Nightlessons" .............................. 77 Figure 1.3: Finnegans Wake p. 278 .................................................................................. 88 Figure 1.4: Finnegans Wake p. 279 .................................................................................. 97 Figure 2.1: Stage Directions for "Footfalls" (Shorter Plays 239) ................................... 152 vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Endless love and thanks to Matthew Berger, my partner in so many things. You have always been and always will be my most ardent supporter. Thank you for all the mornings spent reading drafts and nights making me laugh. You are my favorite master of dancing, purveyor of puns, and bringer of Taco Bell. Thank you to my family and friends for their constant love and support. To grandpa John, thank you for always asking about my work and inspiring me to keep going. I’m so glad you were able to come on this journey with me. To Erin Hollis, thank you for being such a caring mentor and friend. You have always believed in me as a writer. You view the world with kindness and help both your friends and students become the best versions of themselves. Thank you to Professor Michael Davidson for your endless encouragement and guidance throughout this process. I am incredibly grateful to have worked with such a kind committee of mentors who have supported me at every step of the way. I am lucky to be surrounded by such a caring group of scholars. Thank you to my teaching mentors, Carrie Wastal and Marion Wilson. I have continued in academia because I believe that through teaching we can change worlds. You are both proof of that. Thank you to my students. You are the true inspiration behind this dissertation. I am constantly in awe of your creativity and ingenuity. Your ideas and work have pushed me to be a better teacher and learner. viii Infinite belly rubs to Skywalker and Tonks. My partners in crime. My afternoon snuggle buddies. You have been by my side through everything. Literally. I promise to always shower you with treats, bones, and affection. Thank you to my friends within and beyond academia. Haydee Smith, Mandy Martin Sandino, Kelli Torpey, I doubt you know just how helpful you were to me throughout this process. The countless lunch and dinner dates were invaluable to my success these past six years. I was always surrounded by people who love and support me. Even when I felt infinitely challenged in one area of my life, I felt enormously lucky in another. Chapter two of this dissertation appears, in part, in the Journal of Literary and Cultural Studies volume thirteen, number two (2019). The dissertation author is the sole writer of this content. ix VITA EDUCATION 2019 Ph.D. in Literatures in English, University of California San Diego 2016 C.Phil. in Literatures in English, University of California San Diego 2013 M.A. in English, California State University Fullerton (including Professional Certificate in Teaching and Writing) 2009 B.A. in Comparative Literature, University of California Los Angeles (minors in French and Italian) RESEARCH DISSERTATION: “Documents in Madness: Mental Disability and Affective Play in Twentieth Century Irish and Caribbean Literatures” Doctoral Committee: Michael Davidson (chair), Margaret Loose, Winifred Woodhull, Daniel Vitkus, Kimberly Devlin (English, UC Riverside), and Brian Goldfarb (Communication) RESEARCH INTERESTS: British and Irish Modernism; Twentieth Century Anglo-Caribbean Literature; Mad Studies; Disability Studies; Trauma Theory; Women and Mental Disability; Disability Pedagogy. PUBLICATIONS “Playing Nothing: Games and Cognitive Difference in Murphy.” Journal of Literary and Cultural Disability Studies, vol. 13, no. 2, 2019. DOI: 10.3828/JLCDS.2018.44. “I Have Been Knotted; I Have Been Torn Apart.” DASH Literary Journal, vol. 6, pp. 87- 89, 2013. REVIEWS: Review of Surreal Beckett: Samuel Beckett, James Joyce, and Surrealism, by Alan Warren Friedman. James Joyce Quarterly, vol. 55, no. 3-4. MANUSCRIPTS IN PREPARATION: “The Anti-Erasure of Lucia Joyce: Literary Adjacent Women and the Resignification of Mad Histories,” solicited for Joyce Writing Disability. Ed. Jeremy Colangelo. x AWARDS 2018-2019 UC President’s Dissertation-Year Fellowship 2018-2019 UCSD Literature Department Dissertation-Year Fellowship (Declined) 2014 International James Joyce Foundation Graduate Student Scholarship 2013 CSUF Graduate Excellence Award TEACHING EXPERIENCE UC SAN DIEGO LITERATURE DEPARTMENT: Summer 17-Spring 18 LTEN 22: Intro to the Literature of the British Isles: Pre-1660 (Teaching Assistant) LTEN 23: Intro to the Literature of the British Isles: 1660-1832 (Teaching Assistant) LTEN 23: Intro to the Literature of the British Isles: 1832-Present (Teaching Assistant) LTEN 149: Topics in English Language Literature: “There’s No Place Like Home”: Aesthetic Responses to Traumas in 20th Century Anglophone Literature (Instructor of Record) MUIR COLLEGE WRITING PROGRAM: Fall 13-Spring 18 MCWP 40: Critical Writing (Teaching Assistant) Course Topics: Wilderness; Water; Perspectives on Climate Change MCWP 50: Critical Writing (Teaching Assistant; Instructor of Record) Course Topics Developed: Disability and Popular Culture; Grimm Retellings: Fairy Tales and Adaptation; Affect and the Making of Modern Monsters Department Writing Tutor TRITON EDGE PROGRAM: Summer 15 EDS 21: Writing and Learning (Teaching Assistant) CSU FULLERTON ENGLISH DEPARTMENT: Fall 11-Spring 13 English 101: Beginning College Writing (Teaching Associate; Instructor of Record) English 342: Explorations of Literature: Harry Potter (Instructional Assistant) English 99: Developmental Writing (Instructional Assistant) Writing Center Tutor xi ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Documents in Madness: Mental Disability and Affective Play in Twentieth Century Irish and Caribbean Literatures by Jennifer Anne Marchisotto Doctor of Philosophy in