Media, Literary And Scientific Constructions Of The Madwoman, A Computational Textual Analysis

This paper will provide a textual analysis of three types of texts from the Victorian Era analyzing the patterns found based on the word choices in the texts involving the topic of the madwoman. Focusing on literary, scientific, and journalistic examples, I used the AntConc system to collect a quantitative sample of every word listed the texts used for the analysis. The texts analyzed through the system are Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte¨, The Physiology and Psychology of the Mind by Henry Maudsley, The Construction and Government of Lunatic Asylums and Hospitals for the Insane by John Connolly, and the collection of newspaper articles on Mary Lawson from the Hull Advertiser and Exchange Gazette.