He argues that the madman is a protean
figure in the popular imagination slipping through in dreams,
fairytales, ballads, paintings, sculpting, literature, and as this
chapter discusses, more recently in cinema as the mad genius
in films. The chapter argues that madness and genius in films like Shine
must be seen and understood concomitantly as each symbolises our
culture’s fascination with the boundaries and limits of our own mental
functioning. The signs of mad genius
in film reveal creativity out of the chaos of symptoms. The conclusion
argues that the meaning of the mad genius is heroic, strangely special,
and utterly mythic.
Simon Cross (2013) ‘Signs and Symptoms of the Mad Genius'. In Julian McDougall and Pete Bennett (Eds.)
Myth Today and Together: Theory under Reconstruction (Routledge, 2013)
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