Introduction: Hysteria and the Plot of Pathology

The Introduction examines how hysteria was constructed in the nineteenth century, both as a medical condition and a cultural phenomenon. I argue that the diagnosis of hysteria was used to control societal anxieties, particularly those surrounding gender. Medical practitioners and authors alike created and reproduced narratives around hysteria, which were responsive to the cultural moment. The authors under study—Austen, Dickens, Eliot, and Hardy—utilized stock literary figures to critique existing cultural narratives about women’s health. By manipulating these literary figures, the authors were able to offer new definitions of women’s health and intervene in medical and cultural discourse. The sentimental heroine, the detective, the married woman, and the New Woman were all used as entry points to challenge prevailing narratives about women’s health. These literary interventions demonstrate the close relationship between medicine and culture and how narrative structures play a crucial role in shaping our understanding of health and illness.