Depressionens diktning. En studie av melankoliska processer i Karin Bellmans 'Stjärnvattenfallet' och Sylvia Plaths 'The Bell Jar'

Abstract

Does depression have a language? Is there such a thing as an explicit depressive narrative? This thesis serves to answer these questions with a study of the portrayal of depression in the novels Stjärnvattenfallet by Karin Bellman and The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. With a methodological background in Freudian theory the study investigates the versatility of the melancholy process as an analytical method in comparative literature. The object of the analysis is to establish whether or not depression has a certain literary language and if it’s possible to make it out in the chosen novels. A comparison of the novels serves to enhance the most distinctive traits of the depressive narrative. The study entails analyses of different levels of literary melancholic identifications. These are processes that can be found in thematic and narrative structures both and which contribute to the melancholic representation as a whole.