Hybrid Decadence and Naturalism in Amalie Skram's Fictions of the Asylum

In the 1895 novels Professor Hieronimus and its sequel På St. Jørgen [ At St. Jorgen's ], the Norwegian novelist Amalie Skram fictionalized her experience of incarceration in a Danish mental hospital. With a naturalist focus on hospital power structures, Skram has her patient-protagonist Else Kant interview fellow patients and question staff about institutional policy. Else's investigation lays the ground for the novels' decadence, highlighting her doctor's vindictiveness, introducing her to uncanny fellow patients, and escalating her panic and unreliability. Early passages about Else's painting and hallucinations further reveal Skram's interest in irrationality and decay. Skram's asylum fictions prove convincing specimens of the hybridity between naturalism and decadence.