Cultural constructions of madness in eighteenth century writing: representing the insane

This major monograph deals with the annexation of the concept of madness by eighteenth-century writers and artists in the service of a sane agenda, and of the figure of the madman or woman for satirical, sentimental or other purposes. A wide range of writers and artists are looked at, including Pope, Swift, Fielding, Addison, Rowe, Tate, Wollstonecraft, Wordsworth, Crabbe, Cowper, Hogarth, Rowlandson, Fuseli and Gillray. Palgrave’s reader called it ‘a powerful study, amply documented, and persuasively shaped’. In the words of Rebecca Rees in Review of English Studies it ‘offers insightful new readings of familiar literature as well as demonstrating the importance of non-literary and non-verbal texts to understanding the cultural milieu of the eighteenth century’. Chapter 6, ‘A Gendered Affliction’ (pp 136-69) is written by Michelle Faubert. Two PhD students are currently working with Ingram on topics related to this research, one of which is fully funded by Leverhulme.