Borderline Girlhoods: Girl, Interrupted By Susanna Kaysen

Marshall Article Summary Elizabeth Marshall, an associate professor of education at Simon Fraser University, contends in her article “Borderline Girlhoods: Mental Illness, Adolescence, and Femininity in Girl, Interrupted, that Susanna Kaysen’s popular memoir is an accurate depiction of the characteristics which mark female adolescence. Marshall points out that the adolescent time period for a girl is defined by “historically and culturally bound gendered pedagogies” (118). It has become normal to think of this stage of a female’s life as a weak, broken, and self-destructive time and need help. Susanna Kaysen’s memoir attracts many young female readers who associate with the wounded girl image and are often seen by society as outcasts with