'The Warfare of Our Higher and Our Lower Selves
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
‘The warfare of our higher and our lower selves’: an analysis of the relationship between mental illness and artistic creativity through a case study of Thomas Hardy’s cyclothymic tendencies by Kate Suzanne O’Connor B.A., The University of British Columbia, 2009 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in The Faculty of Graduate Studies (English) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) April 2012 © Kate Suzanne O’Connor, 2012 Abstract In July of 2008, scholar Tony Fincham offered a retrospective diagnosis of cyclothymia, a milder variant of manic-depression, in explanation of Thomas Hardy’s seemingly cyclical bouts of depression and mania. In preparation of the depressive component of this diagnosis, Fincham consulted four sources - one that fully documents letters written by Thomas Hardy, two that partially document Hardy’s notebook entries, and one that publishes scholarly essays on the author and his works. Fincham located a total of forty incidents within these four sources that describe Hardy as suffering from episodes of depression. Conversely, in an effort to locate instances of mania, Fincham collected only three examples from two different sources, one in a letter written by Florence Hardy and two in Michael Millgate’s 1982 Thomas Hardy: A Biography. This study is useful as it provides an introductory explanation for the mood swings so prevalent in letters and accounts of Hardy’s life, however, having only consulted five sources, it is most definitely not a thorough analysis of the extent to which Hardy may have been suffering from cyclothymia. This thesis hopes to provide both a reliable and exhaustive database of Hardy’s cyclothymic tendencies while also exploring the hypothetical links between mental illness and artistic creativity through a case study of Thomas Hardy. I have located every piece of writing available to me that relates to Thomas Hardy, written either to, from, about, or by Hardy himself, and have analysed these entries through the lens of Kay Redfield Jamison’s research on manic-depression. Because retrospective diagnosis is hypothetical in nature, the examples I provide in my ‘Bibliographic Survey,’ the title for my database, are inherently hypothetical as well. Nonetheless, valuable research can be conducted in the field of biography studies, and it ii is my hope that this database will foster such kinds of further research on Thomas Hardy. The database I have created may allow for the future study of the ways in which a particular determining factor, cyclothymia in this instance, can be said to contribute to our understanding of what Thomas Hardy’s works mean. iii Table of Contents Abstract........................................................................................................................................ii Table of Contents .......................................................................................................................iv Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................................... v Dedication ...................................................................................................................................vi Introduction................................................................................................................................. 1 Bibliography .............................................................................................................................. 28 Purpose............................................................................................................................ 28 Cyclothymia.................................................................................................................... 28 Survey Categories ..................................................................................................................... 30 Mania .............................................................................................................................. 30 Depression....................................................................................................................... 35 Morbidity ........................................................................................................................ 37 Affective Aesthetic Expression....................................................................................... 39 Explanatory Key.................................................................................................. 42 Cautionary Note .................................................................................................. 43 Bibliographic Survey ................................................................................................................ 44 Epigraph .................................................................................................................................. 217 Index......................................................................................................................................... 218 Works Cited............................................................................................................................. 220 iv Acknowledgements I offer my sincerest gratitude to the faculty, staff and my fellow students in the English Department at the University of British Columbia, who every day inspire me to continue my work in this field. I am most indebted to Dr. Scott MacKenzie, without whose attention to detail, valuable guidance and direction this project never would have been possible. I am also grateful to Dr. Deanna Kreisel, whose thoughtful insight taught me to think more deeply about the implications of this study. Ten years ago, my Uncle John listened as I described and recited my favourite poem, and afterwards he encouraged me to pursue an education in the field of English Literature. I am forever grateful to him for helping me recognize my passion at such a young age, and so I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge him. Finally, and without doubt most importantly, very special thanks are owed to my parents, whose undying support and genuine interest in my education has driven me to chase a goal that at times felt out of reach. v Dedication To my family – those who have left this world and those who are still here. vi Introduction Few English writers have achieved recognition for being as accomplished in the areas of both novel writing and poetry as Thomas Hardy. His passion for poetry lasted the duration of his life, epitomized by the fact that he continued producing poems until the age of eighty-eight; he believed “that if he liked, a man could go on writing till his physical strength gave out” (Gibson 42). Hardy claimed that the practice of writing poetry had a “sustaining power” (Millgate Collected Letters of Thomas Hardy vol. 4, 213) for him, namely because of its ability to express “emotional enthusiasms” (Cox Thomas Hardy: More Materials vol. 2, 512). These ‘emotional enthusiasms’ typically took shape in the form of melancholia, and therefore scholars often identify Hardy as a man who suffered from depression (Gittings 1978 & 1979, Millgate 1982 & 2004, Seymour-Smith 1994, Turner 1998, Tomalin 2006, Pite 2006). According to biographical research, however, Hardy did exhibit subtle instances of excitement and enthusiasm, and these seemingly happier moments have often gone unnoticed in Hardyan scholarship. Michael Millgate, an avid researcher and biographer of Thomas Hardy, briefly touches upon this more understated facet of Hardy’s personality when he states, “His darkest depressions were […] capable not only of coexisting with outward geniality but also of alternating with periods of actual cheerfulness” (Millgate Thomas Hardy: A Biography 1982, 381). Similarly, Tony Fincham, a General Practitioner, has recently introduced the cyclothymic condition to Hardyan scholarship through his medico-literary analysis of Hardy’s novels, titled Hardy the Physician: Medical Aspects of the Wessex Tradition. In my research, a comparison of the biographical dates that portray Hardy as experiencing periods of heightened emotion with the manuscript dates of the novels and 1 poems he produced on those dates seems to reveal a relationship in which his literary work bears traces of his experienced emotions. The question arises, then, whether or not Hardy’s moments of artistic creativity are resultant because of his changes in mood. If so, can we go so far as to question whether these shifts in mood are a result of an illness or disorder? Or, conversely, is there no measurable relationship between Hardy’s temperament and his literary production? The discussion surrounding the relationship between artistic creativity and mental illness is remarkably longstanding and equally as controversial, a topic this thesis will attempt to cautiously and responsibly address through a case study of Thomas Hardy. Scholars argue that this debate dates back to Aristotle’s claim that “no great genius has ever existed without a strain of madness” (Kyaga et al. 373). Grecian myths, particularly the Dionysian myths that depict fits of frenzied violence and madness followed by instances of creation and vitality, seemingly reflect Aristotle’s belief in a relationship between mental illness and artistic creativity. Kay Redfield Jamison, an American clinical psychologist who herself suffers from manic-depression, touches on this union of mental illness