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dc.contributor.advisorKidd, Colin
dc.contributor.authorBetz, Emily
dc.coverage.spatial215en_US
dc.date.accessioned2023-04-11T11:13:14Z
dc.date.available2023-04-11T11:13:14Z
dc.date.issued2023-06-15
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/27383
dc.description.abstractThis thesis explores the various identities of the disease of melancholy in England between c.1580 and 1789. Melancholy was a disease with a long and ambiguous history of symptoms and meanings which can be traced back to Classical authors. It will be argued here that this disease bourgeoned in early modern England popular discourse in a way previously unseen. This flourishing was due to the specific cultural circumstances found in the two centuries under investigation which allowed for certain traits of the melancholy disease to become predominant in impactful ways. Using the philosopher Ian Hacking’s theoretical framework on ‘transient mental illness’, this thesis examines the appearance of the different common conceptions of melancholy in their religious, political, and social iterations. It argues that different disease identities become predominant as they moved into spaces created by ‘ecological niches’, before fading away when those niches changed. While the various melancholy identities never entirely disappeared, they did become more or less popular according to the cultural contexts of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Ultimately, these changing identities of the ailment interacted with the circumstances of early modern England to produce a distinctly English reputation for melancholy in the 1700s.en_US
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.subjectMelancholyen_US
dc.subjectEarly modern Englanden_US
dc.subjectMedicineen_US
dc.subjectHypochrondriaen_US
dc.subjectHysteriaen_US
dc.subject.lccBF575.M44B4
dc.subject.lcshMelancholy--England--Historyen
dc.subject.lcshMelancholy in literature--Historyen
dc.subject.lcshIllness anxiety disorder--England--Historyen
dc.subject.lcshMedicine--England--Historyen
dc.title'The “English disease” : identities of melancholy in early modern England'en_US
dc.typeThesisen_US
dc.type.qualificationlevelDoctoralen_US
dc.type.qualificationnamePhD Doctor of Philosophyen_US
dc.publisher.institutionThe University of St Andrewsen_US
dc.rights.embargodate2028-01-23
dc.rights.embargoreasonThesis restricted in accordance with University regulations. Restricted until 23rd January 2028en
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.17630/sta/395


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