Where the âMad Womanâ Meets the âClub Van Goghâ: Claiming Cultural Heritage while Defying Damaging (Stereo)Typification

Anne RÃ¼ggemeier

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Chapter 13 Where the âMad Womanâ Meets the âClub Van Goghâ: Claiming Cultural Heritage while Defying Damaging (Stereo)Typification

In: The Cultural Heritage of Psychiatry and Its Literary Transformations

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Anne RÃ¼ggemeier

Anne RÃ¼ggemeier
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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 279â302

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004745247_015

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Abstract

In the following discussion of Ellen Forneyâs graphic novel Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo and Me (2012), I will illustrate the ambivalent resonance of the centuries-old myth of the âmad geniusâ on the individual illness story of a bipolar female comic artist. I argue that the female protagonistâs contrastive feelings after she is diagnosed with bipolar disorder mirror a more or less unconscious response to the conflicting and problematic immaterial cultural heritages that intersect with each other in complex ways as they shape and inform her subject position as a bipolar and bisexual woman artist. On the one hand, the diagnosis positions her in a transhistorical discourse about art, creativity and the âmad geniusâ. On the other hand, it situates her in a trajectory of the cultural memory of female mental distress as it has been culturally transmitted through concepts such as âthe wandering wombâ (Thompson 1999), âthe mad woman in the atticâ (BrontÃ«; cf. RÃ¼ggemeier 2018) and âthe female maladyâ (Showalter 1986), that is, ideas which stand for diverse kinds of injustice and violence against women. By situating Forneyâs experience of mental illness within the long history of artistic exceptionality, this article discusses her artistic exploitation of the cultural icon of the âmad artistâ. On the one hand, the concept helps her to cope with her symptoms and diagnosis, but, on the other hand, it also burdens her because the simplified and reduced schematic formula neither expresses nor helps to understand the multifaceted and challenging experience of living a bipolar life. The article reexamines the stereotype (sensu Lippmann 1922) of the âmad artistâ by elucidating its cultural and historical origins, by showing how it has been instrumentalised, and by drawing attention to its intersections with gender and sexuality. Eventually, I also address possible reasons for its ongoing popularity.

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The Cultural Heritage of Psychiatry and Its Literary Transformations

Middle Ages to the Present

Series:Â Narratives and Mental Health, Volume: 4

Cover The Cultural Heritage of Psychiatry and Its Literary Transformations

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004745247

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 13 Nov 2025

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Chapter 13 Where the âMad Womanâ Meets the âClub Van Goghâ: Claiming Cultural Heritage while Defying Damaging (Stereo)Typification

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The Cultural Heritage of Psychiatry and Its Literary Transformations

Middle Ages to the Present

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Chapter 13 Where the âMad Womanâ Meets the âClub Van Goghâ: Claiming Cultural Heritage while Defying Damaging (Stereo)Typification