This module will provide a historical survey of perceptions and experiences of mental illness in the United States from c.1870 to the present, engaging with such categories as melancholia, hysteria, schizophrenia, mania, depression, and bipolar disorder. The course will use primary and secondary source texts, including psychiatric case studies, psychological treatises, fictional representations of mental illness and its treatment, and feature films, to critically analyse and compare varying representations of mental illness. Students who need to complete one or more components of assessment during the summer, due to extenuating circumstances or for progression purposes, will be required to submit one essay of 2,000 words. This form of assessment has been set in order to accommodate early submission deadlines for candidates undertaking a year of study abroad, who will not be resident in Nottingham during the usual summer examination period. The essay will be due on the third Wednesday in July.