Modernism and the Machinery of Madness : Psychosis, Technology, and Narrative Worlds

Modernism and the Machinery of Madness demonstrates the emergence of a technological form of paranoia within modernist culture which transformed much of the period's experimental fiction. Gaedtke argues that the works of writers such as Samuel Beckett, Anna Kavan, Wyndham Lewis, Mina Loy, Evelyn Waugh, and others respond to the collapse of categorical distinctions between human and machine. Modern British and Irish novels represent a convergence between technological models of the mind and new media that were often regarded as 'thought-influencing machines'. Gaedtke shows that this literary paranoia comes into new focus when read in light of twentieth-century memoirs of mental illness. By thinking across the discourses of experimental fiction, mental illness, psychiatry, cognitive science, and philosophy of mind, this book shows the historical and conceptual sources of this confusion as well as the narrative responses. This book contributes to the fields of modernist studies, disability studies, and medical humanities. Cover......Page 1 Half-title......Page 3 Title page......Page 5 Copyright information......Page 6 Dedication......Page 7 Table of contents......Page 9 Acknowledgments......Page 11 Introduction......Page 15 Modernism and Madness......Page 21 Mechanizing the Mind......Page 25 Narrative Worlding......Page 36 Chapter 1 Fables of Regression: Wyndham Lewis and Machine Psychology......Page 50 Radio and the Cult of the Child......Page 57 The Psychology of the Machine: Behaviorism......Page 64 Chapter 2 Modernist Influencing Machines: From Mina Loy to Evelyn Waugh......Page 78 A Portrait of the Artist as a Paranoiac......Page 94 Chapter 3 On Worlding and Unworlding in Fiction and Delusion......Page 108 The Fictional-Delusional Worlds of Muriel Spark......Page 109 Asylum Pieces......Page 121 Chapter 4 Flann O’Brien and Authorship as a Practice of “Sane Madness”......Page 141 Explaining the Fantastic......Page 143 Enforcing Ontology......Page 152 Making a Mess of Identity......Page 158 Chapter 5 “Prey to Communications”: Voice Hearing, Thought Transmission, and Samuel Beckett......Page 167 The Figures and Grounds of Madness......Page 169 Hearing Things, Namable and Unnamable......Page 178 Transmitting Madness......Page 188 Conclusion: Contemporary Mediations of Modernist Madness......Page 197 Introduction: Three Black Boxes......Page 207 1 Fables of Regression: Wyndham Lewis and Machine Psychology......Page 216 2 Modernist Influencing Machines: From Mina Loy to Evelyn Waugh......Page 220 3 On Worlding and Unworlding in Fiction and Delusion: Muriel Spark and Anna Kavan......Page 224 4 Flann O’Brien and Authorship as a Practice of “Sane Madness”......Page 227 5 “Prey to Communications”: Voice Hearing, Thought Transmission, and Samuel Beckett......Page 230 Conclusion: Contemporary Mediations of Modernist Madness......Page 235 Bibliography......Page 239 Index......Page 255 Machine Generated Contents Note: 1. Fables Of Regression: Wyndham Lewis And Machine Psychology -- 2. Modernist Influencing Machines: From Mina Loy To Evelyn Waugh -- 3. On Worlding And Unworlding In Fiction And Delusion: Muriel Spark And Anna Kavan -- 4. Flann O'brien And Authorship As A Practice Of Sane Madness -- 5. Prey To Communications: Voice Hearing, Thought Transmission, And Samuel Beckett. Andrew Gaedtke. Includes Bibliographical References (pages 225-240) And Index. Modernism and the Machinery of Madness presents the collapse of categorical distinctions between human and machine in modern fiction and memoirs of mental illness. These works respond to nascent fields of neurology and psychiatry that equated the mind with the brain, reducing mentally patients to 'dysfunctioning neurological machinery'.