“Female hysteria” was a term that was widely used by 19th century doctors and had a large variety of symptoms that were believed to be connected to female literature. Hysteria was considered a synonym for “women’s writing and [women’s novels]. Sometimes referring to all fictional texts by women, sometimes to writing about hysterical women, sometimes to writing that is fragmented, evasive, and ambiguous, hysterical narrative has taken on disturbing connections with femininity” (Showalter 24). Anything that women did, that did not consist of cooking, cleaning, or caring for children, was thought to be out the “norm” and because of it, were declared hysterical. Birgit Spengler suggests that “such discourses are shaped by essentializing notions
