Dissertation Research: Madness in Late Renaissance Italy

论文研究：意大利文艺复兴晚期的疯狂

• 批准号: 0520390
• 负责人: Edward Muir
• 金额: $ 1.2万
• 依托单位: Northwestern University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2005
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2005-09-01 至 2007-11-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0520390&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Dissertation; Research; Madness; Late; Renaissance

PROJECT SUMMARYThe Renaissance marks a pivotal period in medicine and healing, with Italy leading the way in this innovation. For the mentally ill, this era witnessed the creation of some of the world's first mental asylums, many of which were in Italy. Because mental illness had not yet become entrenched in any single frame of reference and no single group enjoyed a monopoly over its diagnosis and treatment, however, a study of Renaissance madness must triangulate on the concept from three disparate discourses: scientific and medical,religious, and legal. My research, therefore, will compare evidence from the records ofthe Roman Inquisition and the episcopal courts in Venice and Rome to institutional recordsfrom some of Italy's first asylums. This will allow me to explore the classification,treatment, and rhetoric of madness within Italian popular culture during the sixteenth andseventeenth centuries in order to grasp not only how the mad were treated and categorized,but also how they were regarded within their own communities.Intellectual MeritsGiven that, as most historians agree, mental illness does not exist until a society hasagreed that it does by perceiving it, naming it, and responding it, madness can serve as awindow onto the changing values of late Renaissance society as a whole. A study of howand why society began increasingly to separate off individuals it deemed to besignificantly different will allow me to glean critical information about the ways inwhich early-modern culture defined and monitored its social and mental boundaries bylooking at those who stepped beyond them. Broader ImpactsResearching the historical moment of the creation of insane asylums can give us clues about the roots of some of our modern assumptions about sanity and reason. . By examining how societies define and separate off certain people, the project will interest scholars in anthropology, sociology, and the social sciences generally. By examining how and why certain people were defined as mad, the proposal raises important questions about the Renaissance as the beginning of modern rational, secular thought. By examining the roles of women and madness, the project will interest those who work in gender studies. More generally the project may interest those in disability studies.

文艺复兴标志着医学和治疗的关键时期，意大利在这一创新方面处于领先地位。对于精神病患者来说，这个时代见证了世界上第一批精神病院的建立，其中许多在意大利。因为精神疾病还没有在任何单一的参考框架中根深蒂固，也没有任何一个群体对其诊断和治疗享有垄断，然而，对文艺复兴时期疯狂的研究必须从三个不同的话语中进行三角定位：科学和医学，宗教和法律。因此，我的研究将比较罗马宗教裁判所和威尼斯、罗马主教法庭的记录，以及意大利首批收容所的机构记录。这将允许我探索16和17世纪意大利流行文化中疯狂的分类、治疗和修辞，以便不仅掌握疯子是如何被对待和分类的，而且了解他们在自己的社区中是如何被看待的。正如大多数历史学家所认同的那样，精神疾病只有在一个社会通过感知、命名和回应来认同它的存在时才会存在。鉴于此，疯癫可以作为一扇窗口，窥视文艺复兴后期整个社会不断变化的价值观。一项关于社会如何以及为什么开始越来越多地将其认为显著不同的个人分开的研究，将使我能够通过观察那些超越这些界限的人，收集有关早期现代文化定义和监控其社会和精神界限的方式的关键信息。更广泛的影响研究精神病院创建的历史时刻可以为我们提供线索，了解我们对理智和理智的一些现代假设的根源。通过研究社会如何定义和分离某些人，该项目将引起人类学、社会学和社会科学学者的兴趣。通过研究某些人是如何以及为什么被定义为疯子的，该提案提出了关于文艺复兴作为现代理性、世俗思想开端的重要问题。通过研究女性和疯狂的角色，这个项目会引起那些从事性别研究的人的兴趣。更广泛地说，这个项目可能会引起残疾研究人员的兴趣。