'In an eggshell of illusions': Mental Illness and the poetic subject in Francis Webb, Bruce Beaver and Michael Dransfield

Amy Louise Hilhorst

doi:10.26182/5b834ac88c25f

'In an eggshell of illusions': Mental Illness and the poetic subject in Francis Webb, Bruce Beaver and Michael Dransfield

Amy Louise Hilhorst

School of Humanities

Research output: Thesis › Doctoral Thesis

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Abstract

This thesis examines the relationship between poetic language, psychiatric illness, and the threat of ontological dissolution, in relation to the work of three modern Australian poets: Francis Webb (1925-1973), Bruce Beaver (1928-2004) and Michael Dransfield (1948-1973). Each of these three poets, moreover, writes of illnesses involving a loss of contact with reality, sometimes called psychosis, and the speaking voices of their poems exhibit complex relationships to the words they are enunciating. The thesis contends that the formal characteristics of the poems have a significant role in shaping the mentally ill subject, and the way they interact with language.

Original language	English
Qualification	Doctor of Philosophy
Awarding Institution	The University of Western Australia
Supervisors/Advisors	Dalziell, Tanya, Supervisor Hughes-D'Aeth, Tony, Supervisor
Thesis sponsors	Australian Government Research Training Program
Award date	3 Aug 2018
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.26182/5b834ac88c25f
Publication status	Unpublished - 2018

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Embargoed from 14/08/2018 to 14/08/2020. Made publicly available on 14/08/2020.

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THESIS - DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY - HILHORST Amy Louise - 2018
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Cite this

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'In an eggshell of illusions': Mental Illness and the poetic subject in Francis Webb, Bruce Beaver and Michael Dransfield

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