Marquette University e-Publications@Marquette Dissertations (2009 -) Dissertations, Theses, and Professional Projects Insane in the Brain, Blood, and Lungs: Gender- Specific aM nifestations of Hysteria, Chlorosis, & Consumption in 19th-Century Literature Anna P. Scanlon Marquette University Recommended Citation Scanlon, Anna P., "Insane in the Brain, Blood, and Lungs: Gender-Specific aM nifestations of Hysteria, Chlorosis, & Consumption in 19th-Century Literature" (2019). Dissertations (2009 -). 884. https://epublications.marquette.edu/dissertations_mu/884 INSANE IN THE BRAIN, BLOOD, AND LUNGS: GENDER-SPECIFIC MANIFESTATIONS OF HYSTERIA, CHLOROSIS, & CONSUMPTION IN 19TH-CENTURY LITERATURE By Anna Scanlon A Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School, Marquette University, in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Milwaukee, Wisconsin June 2019 ABSTRACT INSANE IN THE BRAIN, BLOOD, AND LUNGS: GENDER-SPECIFIC MANIFESTATIONS OF HYSTERIA, CHLOROSIS, & CONSUMPTION IN 19TH-CENTURY LITERATURE ANNA SCANLON MARQUETTE UNIVERSITY, 2019 This dissertation examines literary and medical texts from throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to better understand prevailing attitudes about gender and disease. The project traces the progression of three diseases – consumption, chlorosis, and hysteria – throughout the long nineteenth century, paying particular attention to the stereotypes and prevailing medical notions of each illness. In general, this work examines the influence of lovesickness, female-patient/male-doctor dynamics, and pathology on the endemic or epidemic nature of each disease. In particular, the first three chapters of this project study tuberculosis – or consumption as it was called in the nineteenth century – and the ways in which society presumed this illness manifested either through the female’s beauty or spirituality. This work also uses nineteenth-century writing from women and men who dispute the notions of the beautiful and spiritual consumptive. The second three chapters of this project examine hypochromic anemia – chlorosis in the nineteenth century – and the prevailing medical notion that its manifestation in younger women could be cured through sex, marriage, and childbearing. In so doing, this dissertation studies its roots in lovesickness, procreation, and the Early Modern era. The final section of three chapters explores the somatic manifestations of hysteria – a disease that appeared endemic to young woman throughout this era – and its comorbid condition of neurasthenia. This project looks at texts written by those so diagnosed as well as by those doing the diagnoses. This work concludes with an afterward focused on how the gender-specific medicine of the past continues to impact racialized medicine of the present. Keywords: Medical humanities, tuberculosis, consumption, chlorosis, anemia, lovesickness, hysteria, neurasthenia, comorbidities, racialized medicine, gender-specific medicine DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to the women in my family who have worked to improve not only their own physical, spiritual, mental, and emotional health but that of other women. I also want to dedicate my work to the men in my family who have encouraged, respected, and supported us. God bless and keep you all. i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First, I want to thank my committee. Thanks especially to my amazing advisor and director Dr. Sarah Wadsworth. Despite being an Americanist, you sure helped me craft one heck of a transatlantic literary study. Thank you, too, for all of your advice, support, laughter at my odd parenthetical puns, and, perhaps most of all, your time (especially considering my inability to use em-dashes). Your leadership on this project made it possible. Thank you, too, to the amazing educators who acted as readers for this project. Dr. Heather Hathaway, you have always been one of my staunchest supporters, from hugging me with enthusiasm that put me at ease my first day on campus when I got seriously lost to encouraging me to explore theory in relation to medicine, you’ve made a huge impact. Thank you, too, Dr. Brittany Pladek, for the most insightful comments I have ever read. Your expertise on the medical aspects of this dissertation challenged me to increase my own and I am eternally grateful for that. Thank you both again so very much. Next, I would be incredibly remiss if I didn’t thank my personal academic role model and writing center mentor, Dr. Rebecca Nowacek. Without your warm personality, acceptance of your tutors where we are, and your ability to mentor, well, everyone, I don’t think I would have been as successful as I have. Also, I definitely never would have learned how to outline my ideas using the box method. Because of you, I found my people in the Otters. Thank you. Also thanks to the Otters at large. Between Ott After Hours (OAH!), trivia trips (looking at you, Brynn, Quinn, Kaley, Corrine, John G., Molly, Julia, Ryan, Aishah, Haley, Matt, and all those who come and go!), and just letting me rage at my own inattention to deadlines and details, you’ve been an amazing group of people. Each and every one of you is written on my heart and will have a place there forever because you’ve crafted this dissertation with me. Special thanks to my mentee, Matt Burchanoski, for our weekly tutoring sessions. I know your encouragement, patience, and bad band/album names ripped from the pages of this project are in large part responsible for my continued good humor. Viva Norman! Further thanks are due to our amazing administrative assistant, Wendy Walsh. You are honestly a genius with boundless patience. Without your assistance getting us re-enrolled each semester, filling out the announcement of defense paperwork, and all of the in- between, I wouldn’t have been able to reach this point. You’re absolutely wonderful and the entire department is so very lucky to have you. Thanks, too, to Dr. Hillary Nunn who taught my first disease-in-literature course and got me hooked and on this incredible path to the medical humanities. You always encouraged us all to explore many different options using our English degrees, celebrated our successes with us, and went to bat for us in way we can’t even imagine. Without you, I wouldn’t have taught my first class, attended my first conference, chaired my first panel, ii or applied to Marquette. It doesn’t seem enough to just say thank you, but seriously, thank you. Additional and final thanks have taken me forever to write because they’re for my family, who made every late-night trip home to Cleveland to see them worth the drive. First, to my Mom and Dad, I want to say the dedication is in large part for you. I don’t know many parents who would have been as supportive as you were and have been when I decided to leave nursing and pursue English. I also don’t know as many parents who talk openly about faith, health, and the need for both. In general, too, you’ve supported me more than my stressed-out self sometimes deserved. If that isn’t true love, I don’t know what is. I only hope I can repay you in kind. You are my home and wherever Lilly and I go next, I know we will always return to you. Next, thanks, siblings. I brag often about you—it would be nearly impossible not to—but between Kat’s honest answers about life, the universe, and everything, Brian’s hilarious affinity for bizarre gifs and texts sent to the wrong group, and Patrick’s patient and all- giving care of everything car, electronic, and Lilly-related, I know I am truly blessed. #TYFYS Also, siblings-in-law, I am so lucky our family was right for you, because you’re certainly right for us. Marsha, your dry humor always makes me laugh and Nick, your boundless knowledge never fails to delight. I love you all and will continue to shamelessly brag indefinitely—and probably also continue to send ya’ll texts that wake you up. You rock! Thanks also to my aunts, uncles, and cousins—those here and those gone to eternal rest. Between your visits to see me, your forthright discussions about health and well-being, and your encouragement to talk about my dissertation—and your patience in listening— you make Cleveland the land that I will always love. Special shout-out to Aunt Kate and Uncle Dick for coming to visit Milwaukee and taking me to see Emmylou Harris and Robert Plant. I have never felt so cool. Also, thanks Uncle Dick for sending me the hard- to-get Anorexia and Mimetic Desire as well as encouraging my first interest in Girard when I was an undergrad. Thanks go as well as my grandparents, two of whom I lost while working on this project. You made me strong, you taught me to be proud of where our family came from, and you encouraged me to remember and tell our stories. Thank you. Finally, thanks to my friends from Marquette, The University of Akron (special shout-out to BRH 08 who reminded me that even though we may be far away, we’re always a call or text closer), and Third Federal iii TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures…………………………………………………………………………..iv Chapter 1: Introduction..…………………………………………………………………..1 Consumption Chapter 2: The Ideal Tubercular (Woman) in Nineteenth-Century Literature………….30 Chapter 3: The Lovely and the Lovesick Consumptive………...……………………….61 Chapter 4: The Beautiful, Spiritual, and Creative Consumptive Leaves Readers Breathless……………………………………………………………………………….108 Chlorosis Chapter 5: It’s Not Easy Being Green: What Is Chlorosis?............................................158 Chapter 6: Green Gardens: Expressions of Chlorosis