Sunday, February 4, 2007

Online Resources for Research on Literature , Writers, and Mental Illness

Although Plato and Aristotle spoke about the association between genius, madness, creativity, and writing, Sigmund Freud advanced knowledge about these relationships. Moreover, within the last forty years, scientific studies confirm links between creativity and mental illness.

However, Internet searches on psychoanalytic studies of literature do not produce sufficient results. While science advances knowledge to heal our bodies, literature has the potential to heal our mental landscapes in ways that are similar to music, art, and drama.

Poe's Unconscious is a portal to bring together wanderers that seek to traverse the terrain of Edgar Allan Poe's writing through the convergence of literature, psychology, biology, history, culture, music, and drama. Although the purpose of this site is for academic research, any mental wanderer will benefit from the healing virtues of Poe’s literature.

After a preliminary search, PsyArt was discovered. It’s a free, peer-reviewed online journal that provides a fascinating variety of critical essays. Each essay includes an author’s e-mail to enable a reader to contact him or her for further discussion.

Two other online resources provide understanding about the brain’s mental wanderings into the arts. One is Dana - The Site for Brain News and the other is Mental Health America. Both sites are funded by nonprofit groups.

Mental Health America, established 1909, is a movement to help all humans “live mentally healthier lives.” This site supplies information about mental health topics and offers referrals for those experiencing mental crisis. Dana – The Site for Brain News, originating in 1950, is funded by The Dana Foundation. Its interests are brain science, immunology, and arts education. As a gateway to brain information and research, the link connects to validated sites, relating to more than 25 brain disorders.

These other online resources were found: Bartleby Great Books Online, The Collected Poetry of Edgar Allan Poe, Poe Museum, The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, Poe Studies Association, and the Poetry Foundation.

  • Bartleby Great Books Online is a free-of-charge Internet publisher of literature and reference books. The literary resources are comprehensive and include the Harvard Classics.

  • The Collected Poetry of Edgar Allan Poe is an EServer that was founded in 1990 at Carnegie Mellon, as the English Server. It is now based at Iowa State University and offers texts by great authors and provides “an alternative niche for quality work, particularly writings in the arts and humanities.”

  • The Poe Museum provides rich historical links that include a timeline, family tree, and explanations of various theories about Poe’s death. The site has links to a selection of Poe’s works and has educational resources for teachers and students.

  • Poe Studies Association is an Internet forum for scholarly dialogue about Edgar Allan Poe, his life and works. It was established in 1972 and currently has 330 members. The PSA meets twice a year for conferences: in December at the Modern Language Association and in May at the American Literature Association.

  • The Poetry Foundation, established in 1912, features a poetry tool that enables users to search thousands of poems by subject, occasion, or author. The site links to reading guides and publishes a poetry magazine.

Blogrolls found:

  • The Dana Press Blog provides a forum for conversations about brain science immunology and arts education. Posted categories are arts education, authors, books, brain, consciousness, events, immunology, journals, media, neuroethics, and news. Recent posts include “Resolve to be good to your brain too,” “Wandering corridors, wandering minds,” “Mis-perceptions,” “Basal ganglia and more,” and “Rediscovering the brain.”

  • ReadySteadyBlog seeks to foster independent book reviews of British and American literary fiction, poetry, history and philosophy. With daily posts, 174 blogs link to its site, according to Technorati.

  • One of Guardian’s top ten literary blogs, Grumpy Old Bookman is spirited by Michael Allen, writer and owner of Kingsfield Publications, a small press based in England. In March 2004, Allen set up the blog to discuss books and publishing, aiming for both readers and writers. Posted on the blog is a daily commentary and Technorati ranks it 7,645 (l,055 links from 359 blogs).

  • Writers Write and Readers Read Blog are both published by Writers Write, Inc., a publisher of a network of book, publishing and writing websites. Based in Dallas, Texas, the company specializes in new media and has links to reference resources and science and health sites that writers might want to visit. Writers Write Blog brings together the world of writers: fiction writers, students, journalists, screenwriters, business writers, technical writers, medical writes and poets. Readers Read Blog covers the latest book news, including excerpts, bestseller lists and trends.

  • The Elegant Variation is one of Guardian’s top 10 literary blogs. It’s also a Los Angeles Magazine’s top Los Angeles blog. Mark Sarvas publishes TEV and his credits include: screenwriter, short story writer, novelist, book reviewer, and newspaper editor.

  • The Literary Saloon offers commentary on literary matters, as well as literary news and links. It’s generally updated daily by M. A. Orthofer and Elizabeth Morier. Individuals that post articles are identified. The blog has been online since 11 August 2002.

For easy access, these favorites are linked to this site:

  • Blackbird is a partnership between the English department at Virginia Commonwealth University and new Virginia Review, Inc. It’s an online journal of literature and the arts.

  • Nature is one of the world’s weekly scientific journals, founded in 1869. It publishes peer-reviewed research and news.

  • Science magazine is my favorite of the world’s top journals of original scientific research, global news, and commentary. I especially find their daily news site, ScienceNow, helpful.

  • Technorati tracks 66.6 million blogs, covering a rainbow of topics, published by the people! It’s an invaluable search engine for who’s talking about what current topic in any field.

  • The Free Library by Farlex offers free, full-text versions of classic literary works, established in 2003. It’s an invaluable research tool and is one of the quickest ways to locate information on any literary topic.

  • The New Yorker is a magazine that covers a variety of topics that are usually researched well by excellent writers.

Cheers to happy wandering!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

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