The Portrayal of the ‘Madman’ in German Literature

Thomas Anz emphasises that madness in (German) literature was not only a theme for Expressionism, but was also formally simulated by it in order to question the norms of bourgeois art. The author also points to a significant side effect of the change in aesthetic values associated with the artistic depiction of madness. Conversely, the authors' interest in psychiatry and psychoanalysis also led to an increase in psychiatry's interest in the connection between art and pathology. As a result, the literary and artistic expressions of the mentally ill were clearly valorised (Anz 2002: 88).