MAPACA

Mid-Atlantic Popular &
American Culture Association

MAPACA Conference Proposal

Why is there such a stigma placed upon those suffering from mental illness? Why are they seen as having less human value than one whose brain appears to function properly? These essential questions can be posed when analyzing Ken Kesey's novel *One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest* and Allen Ginsberg's narrative poem *"Howl."* As two disability narratives, both works explore the themes of rebellion, conformity and mental illness in a psychiatric ward. These concepts stand as the backbone of Kesey and Ginsberg’s work, for both authors wish to reiterate the devastating effects one can suffer if one does not conform to societal norms. Both works exhibit a strong sense of the after-affects of an environment powered by authoritative figures hellbent on conformity. Using both Kesey and Ginsberg’s work as the foundation for the discussion of mental disabilities and the social constructions surrounding them, the extent of which human behavior is understood and viewed will be explored. Although mental illness is more universally accepted than it was in earlier years, there is much be understood about comprehending the distinction between sanity and insanity.