"Hysteria, thy name is woman”: Pathologizing Femininity in Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace

Author(s)	Ms. Anshul Dhankar, Devendra Kumar Sharma
Country	India
Abstract	Within the framework of Phallocentric discourse, women have historically been associated with illness and pathology. Hysteria, metaphorically and symbolically, has been constructed as a distinctly feminine condition and it continues to be gendered even into the modern epoch. Contextualizing the hindsight, Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace addresses hysteria as a predominantly female malady, shedding light on its cultural and medical framework within societal constraints. The present paper critically examines the conceptualization of femininity and hysteria concerning culture, gender, and medicine. Through the lens of feminism, it explores hysteria as the subset of the broader cultural narrative that correlates women with madness focusing on the central character, Grace Marks, as an embodiment of Victorian female hysterical archetype.
Keywords	Phallocentric discourse, Hysteria, Femininity, Invalidism, Madness.
Field	Sociology > Linguistic / Literature
Published In	Volume 7, Issue 2, March-April 2025
Published On	2025-03-17
DOI	https://doi.org/10.36948/ijfmr.2025.v07i02.39247
Short DOI	https://doi.org/g882jc

About IJFMR Fees & Payment Current Issue Publication Archive	Submit Research Paper Track Submission Status Publication Guidelines Publication Ethics Peer Review & Plagiarism	Join as a Reviewer Editors & Reviewers Reviewer Referral Program Get Reviewer Membership Certi.	Website/Journal Policies Usage Policy Content Policies Privacy Policy

Contact Us		+91-9687-828-838	editor@ijfmr.com

International Journal For Multidisciplinary Research