Exploring lack and absence in the body/text: Charlotte Perkins Gilman prewriting Irigaray

On the Borderlands of Madness

“…That is, she does not position herself in rationality, as opposed to madness, but rather shows how these are not two separate spheres that exclude each other: they are interrelated in such a way that identity can dwell in the borderlands, because identity is understood as a divided and multi-faceted whole. Many critics have noted the doubleness of The Yellow Wallpaper's narrator (see Bono Velilla 2021 ;Delashmit 1990;and Johnston 1992), but it must be emphasized how this specularity is not to be seen as a lack or insufficiency. The narrator remains whole throughout, thus aligning herself with Disability Justice and Mad Pride's principle of recognizing wholeness.…”