Unravelling the myth of the mad genius in An Angel At My Table

Jane Campion’s 1990 adaptation of Janet Frame’s autobiography An Angel at My Table invites close examination of one of the most pervasive and persistent stereotypes of mental illness: the mad genius, which assumes a close and necessary connection between artistic or intellectual achievement and psychological dysfunction. In this essay, I explore the social and medical discourses that collude in the construction of the mad genius stereotype. Through a close analysis of Campion’s film, I examine the various ways in which the afflicted protagonist, Janet Frame (Kerry Fox), is stigmatised and constructed as ‘different’ during the course of her life. I also draw upon Frame’s own comments in her autobiography, which illuminate her ambivalent and conflicted response to being labelled a ‘mad writer’. Campion’s film critically engages with mental illness stereotypes, revealing both the attractions and limiting effects of stereotypical discourse for the person constructed as different. Campion ensures that Janet’s perceived ‘difference’ from those around her does not prevent the spectator from sharing Janet’s emotions and sympathising with her dilemmas throughout the film. Indeed, An Angel at My Table challenges the discursive construction of Janet as different and uncovers the universal in her heroine’s experiences of childhood and adolescence, securing the spectator’s emotional identification with Janet’s journey towards an independently defined selfhood.