Name: Don Quixote in the Archives: Madness and Literature in Early Modern Spain
Author: Dale Shuger (Author)
ISBN: 9780748644636

Don Quixote in the Archives: Madness and Literature in Early Modern Spain book cover

Don Quixote in the Archives: Madness and Literature in Early Modern Spain

Author(s): Dale Shuger (Author)

Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Publication Date: 4 April 2012
Language: English
Print length: 232 pages
ISBN-10: 0748644636
ISBN-13: 9780748644636

Book Description

A new reading of madness in Don Quixote based on archival accounts of insanity. From the records of the Spanish Inquisition, Dale Shuger presents a social corpus of early modern madness that differs radically from the ‘literary’ madness previously studied. Drawing on over 100 accounts of insanity defences, many of which contain statements from a wide social spectrum – housekeepers, nieces, doctors, and barbers – as well as the testimonies of the alleged madmen and women themselves, Shuger argues that Cervantes’ exploration of madness as experience is intimately linked to the questions about ethics, reason, will and selfhood that unreason presented for early modern Spaniards. In adapting, challenging and transforming these discourses, Don Quixote investigates spaces of interiority, confronts the limitations of knowledge – of the self and the world – and reflects on the social strategies for diagnosing and dealing with those we cannot understand. Shuger discovers an intimate connection between Cervantes’s integration of this discourse of madness and his part in forging the new genre of the European novel. Key Features * Challenges the Foucauldian narrative of repression and the Bakhtinian narrative of liberation * Uses a historicist approach to show how Don Quixote engages, transforms and transcends the historical * Proposes a new reading of the development of the novel that comes from the unreasonable Baroque subject as opposed to the rational Enlightenment subject

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From the Inside Flap

AUTHOR-APPROVEDEdinburgh Critical Studies in Renaissance CultureGeneral Editor: Lorna HutsonThese original interpretations of Renaissance culture focus on literary texts in English and in a range of vernacular languages. They also deal with the reception and transformation of the Greco-Roman literary, political and intellectual heritage.Don Quixote in the Archives:Madness and Literature in Early Modern SpainDale Shuger/A new reading of madness in /Don Quixote/ based on archival accounts of insanity/Dale Shuger presents, from the records of the Spanish Inquisition, a social corpus of early modern madness that differs radically from the ‘literary’ madness hitherto studied by Cervantes critics. Drawing on over one hundred accounts of insanity defences, many of which contain statements from a wide social spectrum – housekeepers, nieces, doctors, and barbers – as well as the testimonies of the alleged madmen (and madwomen) themselves, Shuger argues that Cervantes’s exploration of madness as experience is intimately linked to the questions about ethics, reason, will, and selfhood which unreason presented for early modern Spaniards.In adapting, challenging, and transforming these discourses, /Don Quixote/ comes to investigate spaces of interiority, to confront the limitations of knowledge – of the self and the world – and to reflect on the social strategies for diagnosing and dealing with those we cannot understand. Shuger discovers an intimate connection between Cervantes’s integration of this discourse of madness and his part in forging the new genre of the European novel.Dale Shuger is a Professor of Early Modern Spanish Literature and History at Columbia University.

From the Back Cover

AUTHOR-APPROVED Edinburgh Critical Studies in Renaissance Culture General Editor: Lorna Hutson These original interpretations of Renaissance culture focus on literary texts in English and in a range of vernacular languages. They also deal with the reception and transformation of the Greco-Roman literary, political and intellectual heritage. Don Quixote in the Archives: Madness and Literature in Early Modern Spain Dale Shuger /A new reading of madness in /Don Quixote/ based on archival accounts of insanity/ Dale Shuger presents, from the records of the Spanish Inquisition, a social corpus of early modern madness that differs radically from the ‘literary’ madness hitherto studied by Cervantes critics. Drawing on over one hundred accounts of insanity defences, many of which contain statements from a wide social spectrum – housekeepers, nieces, doctors, and barbers – as well as the testimonies of the alleged madmen (and madwomen) themselves, Shuger argues that Cervantes’s exploration of madness as experience is intimately linked to the questions about ethics, reason, will, and selfhood which unreason presented for early modern Spaniards. In adapting, challenging, and transforming these discourses, /Don Quixote/ comes to investigate spaces of interiority, to confront the limitations of knowledge – of the self and the world – and to reflect on the social strategies for diagnosing and dealing with those we cannot understand. Shuger discovers an intimate connection between Cervantes’s integration of this discourse of madness and his part in forging the new genre of the European novel. Dale Shuger is a Professor of Early Modern Spanish Literature and History at Columbia University.

About the Author

Dale Shuger is a professor of early modern Spanish literature and history at Columbia University. She received her doctorate from New York University in 2008. She has published articles on madness, the Spanish Inquisition, and Cervantes in several anthologies and in The Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies, and Cervantes (Journal of the Cervantes Society of America).

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