“It was phrenzy that dictated my deed”: Wieland’s Fear of the Mind and the American Gothic — Presentation Detail — Celebration of Scholars

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Jun Wang
Kim Instenes
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James Ripley

“It was phrenzy that dictated my deed”: Wieland’s Fear of the Mind and the American Gothic

Name: Joseph Hansen
Major: English and Music
Hometown: Omaha, NE
Faculty Sponsor:
Other Sponsors:
Type of research: Senior thesis

Abstract

This thesis uses a combination of two lesser-known theories, genre and cognition theories, to examine Charles Brockden Brown’s novel Wieland. In it, I look at the significance of the act of musing for the genre of the Gothic. I conclude that Brown presents a more explicitly psychological version of the Gothic that is not dependent on the stereotypical castle or monastery to provide a sense of enclosure. Instead, he builds a fear of cognition and the inner workings of the mind to convey the experience of terror in an effective way. This establishes a new way of approaching the Gothic especially relevant to the free thinkers of post-revolution America.

This thesis focuses specifically on the idea of phrenzy, and how a person’s musings can lead them into that state. I begin by establishing a definition of the Gothic provided by Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick. I then make connections between Clara’s actions when presented with mysterious voices in her closet and Wieland’s murder of his family by revealing that both are described to be in a state of phrenzy at the time. Likewise, both phrenzies are preceded by musing sessions. I also briefly dabble into the diagnostic aspect of the text: examining what Wieland’s footnote diagnosis of mania mutabilis means for the larger implications of the piece, and come to the conclusion that Brown has successfully met Sedgwick’s criterion by portraying a distant and terrifying, yet familiar and possible distortion of thought to his audience.