Divided into three substantial chapters, this dissertation centres on the interconnections of madness and nonsense. In particular, the introduction analyzes theories on nonsense literature, and the binaric logics that separately structure the discursive fields of these two phenomena. In this section, there is also a deconstruction of the problematics of analyzing nonsense as a literary technique without the influence of mad studies. The first chapter then moves to take on the figure of the Western serial killer, and the hermeneutic projects that the media takes on when reporting on his “senseless” crimes. Arguing that the labelling of the serial killer’s crimes as “nonsensical” demonstrates a particular aesthetic that works to associate madness with danger, disease, fear, and hatred within the public imaginary, this dissertation offers an analysis through a reading of Lynn Crosbie’s Paul’s Case. In the final chapter, this dissertation employs Margaret Atwood’s Surfacing and Emma Donoghue’s The Wonder to consider nonsensical madness within the context of feminine subjectivity. Considering autotheory as a feminist hermeneutic practice then leads into the author’s own experiences as a mad person. This dissertation aims to consider how to engage with nonsensically mad feminine texts, and the ethics of the hermeneutics of mad reading-projects. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / Why do we deem certain groups of people nonsensical? Why is nonsense considered the ‘mother-tongue’ of madness? This dissertation attempts to unfold some of the dimensions of these questions through an historical taxonomy of madness and nonsense as separate yet connected phenomena; an analysis of the media and popular categorization of the Western serial killer; and feminine people deemed ‘mad’ via hysteria. Using their own experiences of madness, the author asks how we can possibly read mad articulations when they are often chalked up to nonsense, as well as the sociopolitical implications of this configuration of nonsense and madness.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Delaware, 2008. / Principal faculty advisor: J. Ritchie Garrison, Winterthur Program in Early American Culture. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Cornell University, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references.