Maupassant and Medicine: The intersection between the works of Guy de Maupassant and the development of psychiatry and neurology in fin-de-siecle France
Public Deposited- Last Modified
- February 26, 2019
- Creator
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Straub, Elizabeth E.
- Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Romance Studies
- Abstract
- This thesis will demonstrate that the French nineteenth-century author Guy de Maupassant, through both his literary ability and his intimate knowledge of psychological and neurological disorders, provides a unique insight into French medical attitudes of the nineteenth century. Analysis will be based on a selection of short stories written by Maupassant which reflect both his progressing neurological and psychiatric symptoms and intersect with contemporary medical knowledge within the burgeoning field of psychiatry. Maupassant expresses his opinions on hysteria and hypnotism, a diagnosis and treatment respectively, in several of his writings — most notably in “Conte de Noël.” Further, through his writing, Maupassant explores his own experiences with hallucinations at a time when nineteenth-century French psychiatrists were beginning to characterize the phenomenon. Similarly, Maupassant examines the descent into madness and its relationship with suicide in several other stories, writing at a time in which outdated conceptions of insanity and modern diagnoses such as depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder were evolving.
- Date of publication
- spring 2015
- Keyword
- DOI
- Resource type
- Rights statement
- In Copyright
- Note
- Funding: None
- Advisor
- Heitsch, Dorothea
- Degree
- Bachelor of Science
- Honors level
- Honors
- Degree granting institution
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Extent
- 66
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