Mental Illness in Short Fiction

The theme of mental illness has recurred with regularity in nineteenth- and twentieth-century short fiction and, while it has often been associated with female characters, it has also been used in crime stories and supernatural and gothic tales, among others. In the case of some literary works, critical focus on mental illness has invited a whole new interpretation. For example, Gary Rosenfeld in his two essays on Alexander Pushkin's “Pikovaa dama” (1833; “The Queen of Spades”) notes that Germann's madness has not been the topic of much critical discussion, and then explores the story using Freudian and Lacanian psychological theory. Similarly, Graeme Tytler has argued that Charles Dickens's 1866 short story “The Signalman,” which has traditionally been interpreted as a...