Output details

Grace

The question of rationality and irrationality was the core question of the project, as was the question of balance. From a technical perspective, I wanted to research whether a balanced opposition of two readings of the same events, could create a tension that would engage the reader in an intrinsically unreliable narrative, and to force them to think about where they want to put their faith. The aim was to see whether a novel could question the reader’s assumptions about sanity, insanity, and the degree to which their understanding of mental illness is dependent on context.

I attempted to pit two different ways of seeing the world against each other – the irrational and the rational, the emotional and the intellectual, the fictional and the factual. This was attempted technically, using the form of the fairy tale to frame certain parts of the story, and the conventions of the realist novel to frame others. The reader brings their own expectations of both these forms of writing, and I hoped this would subtly undermine or shore up particular parts of the story. The extent to which the writing is influenced by Peterman’s perspective is another technical device I attempted - to undermine his version of events, occasionally his illness inflects the prose style, at other times the prose is neutral. I tried to manipulate the emotional tone, too – anxious at some points, relaxed in others. The doctor/patient dyad was used in order to play on the reader’s prejudices: people tend to believe and trust doctors, inmates of secure hospitals less so.

The aim was to present two different ways of seeing the world that the reader has to hover, and eventually choose, between. In that choosing the reader will be made to face the reasons for their views on mental health issues.

This monograph that was written over a period of three years, which includes time spent researching issues of mental health as well as drafting and redrafting the manuscript. It is a standard fictional narrative interwoven with an intervention into debates around mental illness, and realism in literature. It deals with the psychology of love and loss, and was taken up by book groups in the community and prisons as an issue-led discussion piece.