| abstract |
The novel Thirteen Thursdays tells the story of a seemingly privileged thirteen-year-old girl, living with her single father in Greenwich Village, New York City. Her mother, who Thora later realizes has depression, has left her and her father. The story is told by Thora, in the present tense, and only on Thursdays. She was diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), early, when she was just eight years old. Thora knows she was one of the lucky ones, if the term lucky could ever be applied to OCD. Except for her mother's absence, Thora appears to have the life of a "normal," functioning teenager. But life inside Thora's head is far from typical. She tells her story, to try, if possible, to reveal her deep pain, as only a middle-schooler could narrate.
The introduction provides a reflection on the writing process and influences of modernist literature on the composition of the novel. This project examines not the role of mental illness in fiction, but the opposite—fiction's role regarding mental illness, possibly considering narrative as an occasion for mental health awareness. Often, fiction writers see illness solely as a vehicle for character development—to make a character interesting, to move a story forward. The question to ask is, can both of these things be accomplished at the same time? Can we think about novels as doing political work without reducing characters to their disabilities? Mental illness might be seen not just as a medical condition, but a social and cultural experience. Through the perspectives of a few modernists' secondary characters, this work attempts, while using disability theory, to find clarity in the muddled world of the mentally challenged. It is intended to increase awareness through a quest narrative vs. one of chaos, and to share a story of hope in an all-too-often dark world.
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