Volume XXVI of
REVISTA MONOGRÁFICA will explore the manifestations in Hispanic
literature of the intertwining themes of delusion, hysteria, hallucination, and
madness plus their modern guises of neuroses, psychoses and senile dementia.
Whether permanent or transitory, such altered states of consciousness inspired
writers and intellectuals to produce treatments from satire to parody, metaphor
and allegory. Ancient cultures viewed madness as divinely inspired—or
diabolical—while others treated the insane as sources of amusement. Oracle,
demon, or buffoon, the figure of the madman or madwoman is typically
marginalized, seldom integrated into family or community; literary treatments
typically reflect that marginal state. In the Spanish novel’s
foundational work, Cervantes’s genial gentleman is not the first or only madman
of Spanish literature, thanks to several antecedents in the Chivalric and
Sentimental novels of characters driven mad by unbearable grief or unrequited
love. The author’s enduring interest in insanity is attested by his prologue,
featuring two additional madmen and the novel’s doubly ironic spectacle of the
madman feigning madness as he imitates Amadís/ Beltenebros, enacting a hermit on
a desert island. Similar episodes—which would likely be deemed dementia
today—abound in Pastoral novels as well. Another fertile area for this theme in
Hispanic literature occurs in Romantic works, whose heroes and heroines often
went mad or died of broken hearts. Poets, dramatists and novelists seemed to
view madness as an irremediable state: it typically constituted the work’s
denouement or closure (excepting cases of miraculous intervention), and many
works ended with the onset of madness. Gothic novels, although less well
represented in Hispanic fiction than in that of other countries, exhibit
particular interest not only in the “madwoman in the attic” but also in what
would be later be considered cases of the criminally insane (monsters, “wolfmen,”
serial killers, vampires and the like) whose origin in the same roots as
insanity (“lunacy”) appears in linkages between their episodes of uncontrollable
fury and the full moon. With the advent of Positivism and Naturalism, novelists
evince greater interest in the etiology of madness (origins, manifestations, and
treatment); Galdós’s enduring fascination produced numerous variegated
examinations. Fascination with the permutations of madness has only grown in the
twentieth- and twenty-first centuries, abounding in both the contemporary Gothic
and more scientific treatments in both novels and the cinema.
MONOGRAPHIC REVIEW/REVISTA MONOGRÁFICA invites papers of 12-15
pages on this topic. The papers should be prepared according to MLA format and
the Monographic Review style sheet. Submit an
electronic file with a 250-word abstract as an e-mail attachment to
genaro.perez@ttu.edu. Preferred
format is MS Word 97-2003 (No Macs, Vista, or Microsoft
Word 2007 [.docx], please). Use end
notes only and do not justify the margins. Do not underline:
use italics. Please include cover letter with your e-mail address. DEADLINE:
November 30, 2010.
Send to:
Volume XXVI (2010)
of MONOGRAPHIC REVIEW/REVISTA MONOGRÁFICA
will treat the theme of
HYSTERIA, HALLUCINATION AND MADNESS
IN HISPANIC LITERATURE
Genaro J. Pérez, Editor
Monographic Review/Revista Monográfica
Classical & Modern Languages & Literatures
Texas Tech University
Lubbock, Texas 79409-2071
Phone: 806.742.3145
Fax: 806.742.3306
Genaro.Perez@ttu.edu