Literature Review - The Representation Of Mental Health In Literature

Literature Review – The Representation of Mental Health in Literature

In contemporary literature, there has been an increased focus on the discourse of mental health, which can be associated with the evolution of societal awareness toward mental illnesses. This literature review aims to bring together key insights from various scholarly works that focus on the representation of mental health in literature dealing with young adults and contemporary prose, highlighting gaps in research on the impact of mental illness representation on readers, societal responses to literary representations of mental illness, and the implications for readers through literary analysis.

Mental Illness in Young Adult Literature

Aberle (2021) describes a qualitative content analysis focused on how characters with mental illness are depicted in award-winning young adult novels. This study will contribute greatly to the body of literature geared toward young adults’ mental health awareness and comprehension promotion, particularly to educators seeking supported guidance for text selections. Aberle investigates how these characters negotiate social interactions with peers and adults, answering research questions that unveil larger patterns of social participation and elicit underlying interpersonal relationships and the experience of mental health concerns.

Three themes emerge from the analysis of Aberle’s study: a supportive environment greatly enhances the psychosocial well-being of the characters, almost all characters with mental illnesses in the sampled texts are portrayed as real people and not one-sided representations and people with mental health problems are presented as productive members of society. These results help one understand that there are dominating stereotypes such as “tragic victim” alongside “heroic resilience,” which can evoke empathy while also allowing for acceptance. This article is particularly important for the proposed research because it illustrates the dual impact of literary representations of mental health, highlighting both the potential benefits and the harms of such representations.

Complementing Aberle’s findings, Landsverk’s (2024) thesis offers an exploration of narrative structures in young adult literature, focusing on Jennifer Niven’s All the Bright Places and Jay Asher’s Thirteen Reasons Why. Harding’s analysis evaluates the functions of the implied author and homodiegetic narrators, arguing the impact of a given point of view on the perception of societal suicide and mental illness narratives. The author argues that although the portrayal of depression in Thirteen Reasons Why is genuine, the unreliable narration threatens to perpetuate damaging narratives about mental health. Conversely, Niven uses narration that listeners may consider reliable, which allows readers to confront the issue of mental illness. Aberle’s and Landsverk’s studies demonstrate the impact of narrative strategy on the audience’s perception of mental health issues, which emphasizes literature as a powerful medium for discourse on mental health issues in society.

Reader-Response Criticism and Its Implications

The intersection between the audience and the text is crucial while examining the representation of mental health (Harding, 2023). Harding analyzes reader-response criticism as a literary criticism theory concerning evoked readers’ manifestations, both physical and emotional. Harding critiques the formal approach that exclusively uses minimal rationality or emotion, advocating for an understanding that interprets mental health representation in literature through the action of readers utilizing meaning-making processes. This is poignant in young adults’ literature, where stories can impact the feelings of the readers.

Through alignment of the theories, Harding demonstrates the impact of resonating narratives on mental health issues, reminding the audience why such narratives can evoke deep emotions. She agrees with Aberle that emotionally compelling stories can be disruptive, prompting acceptance among young audiences. In this light, Harding’s claims reinforce the capacity of literature to cultivate empathetic understanding and challenge harmful myths surrounding mental conditions.

Modern Prose Literature and Cultural Context

Maghfiroh (2024) broadens the discussion by examining contemporary prose literature to highlight mental health concerns in thematized stories. The qualitative research analysis focuses on the modern literature. The article integrates narrative techniques, mental health depiction, and the characters’ role in mental health issues into the story to represent it in its entirety. In the study, Maghfiroh describes the characters’ interactions within a multitude of societal settings and relational networks surpassing stereotypes are made empathetic. Additionally, the analysis concerning the cultural context shapes the discourse about mental illness while demonstrating the multidimensionality of mental health.

Maghfiroh’s reflections echo Pérez García’s (2022) thesis, which studies the developing depiction of mental disorders in recent English literature. Pérez García studies the changing perception of illness through the examination of literature such as Melville’s Bartleby, the Scrivener and Toews’s All My Puny Sorrows. Pérez showcases how literature serves as a critique of society’s view toward mental health. This study enriches the understanding of literary works and demonstrates how literature discourse contributes to the debates on mental health issues.

Literature as a Tool for Social Reflection

Across these studies, a prominent theme emerges: literature functions as a critical tool for social reflection and significantly influences societal perceptions of mental health. The impact of literature on society’s perception of mental health is enhanced in Aberle’s work, especially in young adult literature, where characters with mental health challenges are portrayed to reflect real-life people undergoing real-life struggles. Using a community framework to place individuals and their experiences with mental health nurtures understanding. Readers are more inclined to have reasoned compassion toward those struggling with mental health when they understand mental health is framed within supportive communities. This argument aligns with Harding’s view about the reader-response approach in readers embracing literature stimulating personal, societal, and reflective discussions.

In addition, the addition of culture to Maghfiroh’s analysis reveals how race, gender, social class, and other identity categories affect the portrayal of mental illness within cultural frameworks. The importance of this approach cannot be understated since it does not generalize pluralistic experiences. Pérez García’s work reinforces the importance of understanding the socio-historical context of a given literary work by showing how different social customs and cultural beliefs associated with mental illness are traced in literature.

Conclusion

In summary, there is a strong gap in the research concerning the intersection of mental health and literature, which indicates how much society is willing to acknowledge mental illness. This review of literature analyzed various sources regarding the portrayal of mental health, especially in young adult fiction, modern prose, and other works, revealing how complex the intersections are. Accordingly, the research stresses the need for a shift in the attitude toward mental health to view it not only as a social construct but as a reality that needs a broader understanding. The works of Aberle, Landsverk, Harding, Maghfiroh, and Pérez García underline the impact responsible portrayals of characters with mental illness can have on empathy, compassion, and social change. There is a need for more relevant literature on mental health geared to the public and, with it, ongoing discussions about effectively addressing the experiences of people living with such difficulties.

References

Aberle, A. (2021). Mental illness representation in young adult literature. Graduate Research Papers. https://scholarworks.uni.edu/grp/1880

Harding, J. R. (2023). Reader response criticism and stylistics. In The Routledge Handbook of stylistics (pp. 69-86). Routledge.

James, M., & Merickel, A. (2005). Reading literature and writing argument (2nd ed.). Pearson Prentice Hall.

Landsverk, I. (2024). Stories of experience: Representations of mental illness and suicide in young adult literature [Master Thesis, NTNU]. https://ntnuopen.ntnu.no/ntnu-xmlui/handle/11250/3147670

Maghfiroh, D. (2024). Narratives of mental health in modern prose literature. Journal of Literary Prose and Society, 1(1). https://jlps.polteksci.ac.id/index.php/jlps/article/view/1

Pérez García, A. (2022). Mental illness in English literature: Attitudes and representations. [Bachelor’s thesis, Universidad de Oviedo]. http://hdl.handle.net/10651/63474

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