ASYLUMS, PATHOLOGIES AND THE THEMES OF MADNESS: PATRICK MCGRATH AND HIS GOTHIC CONTEMPORARIES (360G-Wellcome-200553_Z_16_Z)

Wellcome funding would expand the scope of ‘Asylums, Pathologies and the Themes of Madness’: a one-day symposium to be held at University of Stirling’s Library on January 16th. The symposium is the first step in publicising a Contemporary Gothic archive at Stirling: a resource made possible by recently donated material from both Iain Banks’ estate and Patrick McGrath. We invite academics working on McGrath – and on psychopathology in the Gothic more widely – to view his recently donated materials and to reflect upon the Gothic’s staging of the asylum in light of his fiction. As the son of its last medical superintendent, Patrick McGrath spent his formative years at Broadmoor Lunatic Asylum. The funding would be essential to: Work on cataloguing Broadmoor materials to be put on display at the McGrath symposium. A designated PhD student familiar with the archive – who is studying already local asylum materials from Stirling – would work for 29 hours over 3 weeks (0.27 FTE, £18,031; total cost including holiday pay of £395) to catalogue these materials. Provide travel bursaries to two PhD students working specifically on asylums and the Gothic to attend the conference (£200 total, each travel bursary £100).