IMH members Veronica Heney and Arya Thampuran, together with their colleague Kelechi Anucha, are delighted to report the success of the Cultures of Madness seminar series, which ran bi-monthly over the last academic year.
Cultures of Madness sought to explore the ways different fictional texts approached madness, the different discourses and frameworks within which madness was entangled, positioned, and made sense of, with particular attention to questions of race, gender, class, and sexuality.
The series began with Han Kang’s The Vegetarian, then Helen Oyeyemi’s White is for Witching, followed by Akwaeke Emezi’s Freshwater, and finally Yrsa Daley-Ward’s The Terrible together with I want to die but I want to eat Tteokbokki by Baek Sehee. Cultures of Madness considered themes of alienation, haunting, re-storying, embodiment, and transformation – among many others.
The seminars were well attended, and prioritised space for collective discussion, and thinking together, in non-directive and explorative ways. The team have certainly found them very valuable, both in terms of deepening their current projects, and in sparking ideas for future writing and research. In the short term, they're keen to foster more similar events – so keep your eyes peeled for Cultures of Madness 2.0 coming soon!
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