‘We are all a little mad in one or other particular’. The presentation of madness in the novels of Muriel Spark

Abstract

This paper examines the presentation of madness in the novels of the great Scottish writer, Muriel Spark (1918–2006). In her work, there is a large cast of mad characters as well as a succession of psychiatrists and psychoanalysts. Spark suggests several explanations as to the origins of madness. We see mental disturbance conceived in terms of the supernatural, the religious and the Gothic. She also depicts insanity as a form of personality defect, eccentricity or mental enfeeblement. She drew on Romantic notions of the madman as a seer and speaker of truth. In her portrayal of psychiatrists, both the pill-prescribers and the psychoanalysts, Spark is frequently sceptical of the two: medication can erase positive qualities in an individual, and analysts can spout meaningless gibberish.