Women and Madness
LIT-40069
In the 19th century, a strange marriage of art, literature, science, and psychology catapulted society’s obsession with the archetypal madwoman into the mainstream. Pathologies that had once been used to portray the outré now came to be seen as essential characteristics of all women, casting ideological shadows well into the 21st century. Students will go beyond the confines of literature alone to investigate this unique commingling of ingredients—the fictional madwoman, the pictorial madwoman, scientific theories concerning gender, medical documents, written testimonies of asylum inmates, etc. Themes of identity, guilt, self-persecution, innocence, redemption, disease and violence will be examined. Literary works will include fiction, poetry and essays by Kate Chopin, Christina Rossetti, Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Plath and others.
Course Information
Course sessions
Section ID:
Class type:
Textbooks:
All course materials are included unless otherwise stated.
Policies:
- No refunds after: 10/3/25
Note:
Schedule:
| Date | Day | Start | End |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9/30/2025 | Tue | 6:00 p.m. | 9:00 p.m. |
| 10/7/2025 | Tue | 6:00 p.m. | 9:00 p.m. |
| 10/14/2025 | Tue | 6:00 p.m. | 9:00 p.m. |
| 10/21/2025 | Tue | 6:00 p.m. | 9:00 p.m. |
| 10/28/2025 | Tue | 6:00 p.m. | 9:00 p.m. |
| 11/4/2025 | Tue | 6:00 p.m. | 9:00 p.m. |
Instructor:
Renee Weissenburger, M.A.
Worked as an artist for CoTA (Collaborations, Teachers, Artists) and as a literature & creative writing instructor at National University.
Reneé Weissenburger teaches Women and Madness, Ernest Hemingway: Titan of American Literature, Gender Identity & Literature: Him, Her & Us, and Glittering Wit: Three Works by Oscar Wilde for UC San Diego Extension's Creative Writing Certificate Program. She also teaches Reading Photographs: The Art of Seeing, Beyond Image: Using Photo with Other Media, Variations on Photographic Portraiture, and Visual Poetry: Ways of Seeing for the Photography: Images and Techniques Certificate Program.
Reneé draws on her passion for literature, photography, and history to inform her work, both in the studio and classroom. As lead artist for CoTA (Collaboration of Teachers and Artists), and photography and literature instructor at UC San Diego Extension and National University, she invites students to investigate their own ideologies of memory, history, and the establishment of identity, using the mediums of writing, photography, assemblage and installation art. Her photographs and assemblages are largely concerned with the intersection of literary, historic and mythic motifs and their present-day echoes. She enjoys collaborating with writers and, over the last few years, has recently begun creating photographic trailers for book releases. Classes at UCSD Extension include Visual Poetry: Ways of Seeing, Women and Madness, Beyond the Image: Using Photography with Other Media, Gender Identity and Literature, Variations on Photographic Portraiture, Glittering Wit: Three Works by Oscar Wilde, Reading Photographs: The Art of Seeing, and Ernest Hemingway: Titan of American Literature.
