EMOTIONAL VOID AND IDENTITY FRAGMENTATION: MADNESS AND NARCISSISM IN LADY AUDLEY'S SECRET BY MARY ELIZABETH BRADDON (1862)
Vol.11, Issue 1, 2025, pp. 123-140 Full text: PDF . HTML
DOI: https://doi.org/10.33919/esnbu.25.1.7
Web of Science: 001528232700009
Author:
Paolo Lantieri https://orcid.org/0009-0007-4785-3237
Affiliation:
UCAM Universidad Católica San Antonio de Murcia, Spain 05b1rsv17
Abstract
This research aims at investigating the psychological dimension of the protagonist Lady Audley on the grounds of the dialectic of alleged madness and assumed narcissistic personality disorder related to psychoanalytic literary methodology and criticism. In the light of the first Freudian studies of the first decade of the twentieth century and the subsequent outcomes, we attempt the hypothesis of female identity construction onto typically narcissistic features, in the perspective of Freud's unconscious anticipated by Mary Elizabeth Braddon in her prose generating not only a sensation novel but also an innovative psychological plot depicting the double nature of Victorian society from the perspective of a woman labeled as insane.
Keywords: Bigamy, Braddon, Fake Identity, Lady Audley's Secret, Madness, Narcissistic Personality
Article history:
Submitted: 19 January 2025
Reviewed: 21 February 2025
Accepted: 27 February 2025
Published: 30 June 2025
Citation (APA):
Lantieri, P. (2025). Emotional void and identity fragmentation: madness and narcissism in "Lady Audley's Secret" by Mary Elizabeth Braddon (1862). English Studies at NBU, 11(1), 123-140. https://doi.org/10.33919/esnbu.25.1.7
Copyright © 2025 Paolo Lantieri
This is an Open Access article published and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Funding:
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
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