Hysterical historia. Historical hysteria.
Drawn from medical sources ranging from ancient Egypt
to the present, The Hysterical Alphabet tracks centuries of malady,
heartily disproving the theory that time heals all wombs.
Text by Terri Kapsalis
Drawings by Gina Litherland
HYSTERIA has an under-recognized (and under-appreciated!) four-thousand-year history that deeply inflects our contemporary ideas about women and illness. The ancient Greek myth of the traveling uterus, shrieking Clytemnestra, Freud’s Dora, the French-Victorian electromechanical vibrator, the films of John Waters—one doesn’t have to look far to see the manifestation of female hysteria as a cultural symptom. Terri Kapsalis’s The Hysterical Alphabet is an abecedary offering condensed history of hysteria with levity, playfulness, and critical insight. Drawn from medical writings and images ranging from ancient Egypt to the present, each letter introduces an episode direct from the annals of medical lore. The Hysterical Alphabet tracks centuries of female malady, heartily disproving the theory that time heals all wombs.
In the dark theatre a woman’s voice questions: “Vienna. A Couch in Vienna. Isn’t this where it all began?” On the movie screen, a spray of womb balloons floats free, a wild-haired maiden flings herself on the bed, a furtive doctor closes his black bag. Both exquisitely illuminated manuscript and multimedia performance, (with text by Terri Kapsalis, film montage by Danny Thompson , and sound by John Corbett) The Hysterical Alphabet fearlessly traverses Freud’s dark continent in pursuit of the female malaise named after the womb--though who can tell which came first, hysteria or the womb? Encountering real toads, old bats, witch hunts, midwives, historians, doctors, bewildering traditions, medical prejudices, and old husband’s tales from ancient Egypt to the present, The Hysterical Alphabet bravely uncovers and illuminates the fears and myths regarding women’s sexuality that have lurked in Western minds for centuries. In the manner of medieval Bestiaries and Herbals, The Hysterical Alphabet names, illustrates, pokes gentle fun at, decries and defangs the female womb––the mythical monster of the medical menagerie. This book belongs on your shelf along with Our Bodies, Ourselves and The Technology of Orgasm. Give it to your favorite hysteric today. --SUBROSA |
Terri Kapsalis teaches at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago; and she is a health educator at the Chicago Women’s Health Center. Terri is the author of Public Privates: Performing Gynecology from Both Ends of the Speculum (Duke University Press, 1997).
Gina Litherland has exhibited widely, most recently at the Haggerty Museum of Art, Milwaukee, and at Corbett vs. Dempsey Gallery, Chicago. Her paintings, drawings and essays have been published worldwide..
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ISBN-13: 978-0-945323-16-7
Published by WhiteWalls, Inc., a not-for-profit corporation,
P.O. Box 8204, Chicago, Illinois 60680
This collection ©2008 WhiteWalls, Inc. and the author.
This publication is supported in part by grants from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency; by a CityArts grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs; and by our friends and subscribers.