Furiosos, inocentes y melancólicos. Historia de la locura en la Granada del siglo XVIII

Abstract

This essay is focused on the study of madness in the city of Granada during the 18th century. The analysis of such a complex aspect of Humanity has started from a holistic perspective that integrates as much aspects of the disease as possible. Understanding the institutional process of the Casa de Locos, linked to the institution of the Hospital Real is essential, as a fundamental institution in the management of madness in Granada. The entry and exit process, the life inside the House or the medical practices implemented inside it will be some of the most important issues. Within this manipulation of the body of the insane we can distinguish elements such as the affective strategies that surrounded them or the death of the patient and their places of burial. Also, I have integrated into my study the presence of madness in lawsuits and trials managed by the Real Chancillería de Granada, studying the documents issued by it I have been able to witness the complex identity of the mental patient in the Andalusian society of the Eighteenth century. In the same way the analysis of the madman in literature and theater is essential, the evolution of the stereotype of madness from the narrenschaff to the romanticized melancholy. Finally, I incorporate in my essay the study of the creation of the aesthetical stereotype of madness from the first pictorial works generated around the mad houses, where the Zaragoza-born painter Francisco de Goya is one of the fundamental figures, to the various photographic series of the mad asilated. All of them participate in a common imaginary created in the 18th century.