Materia Medica. Spanish XVII Century Heterodoxia, Alterity, and the Uncommon.
Prof. Dr. Elena del Río Parra
Dept. of Modern & Classical Languages
Georgia State University
http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwmcl/6331.html
Research Stay: September 2012-August 2013
Materia Medica. Spanish XVII Century Heterodoxia, Alterity, and the Uncommon.
Materia Medica is projected as a five-chapter monograph, plus a conclusion. Stemming from Early Modern Medical bibliography, it begun by isolating several neglected issues which captivated my attention, namely, the spectacular in medical texts, and the measuring and desire for pain. Recurring questions within the reach of this monograph also include the role and repercussion of accident; randomness and chance; the prediction of one’s death; the possibility of living forever; the necessity of pain; the theatrical and commercial aspect of medical practice; and the imagination of medicine within the realms of possibility. These and other debates are, of course, framed and tied to the larger scheme of the Baroque, which plays by its own twisted scheme. All of these issues interweave in a world of their own which many times departs from reality and blends with purely fictional tales, a recurrent leap that enlightened minds will try to bring back to proper recategorization, unsuccessfully, much to their despair, as I will attempt to prove in the concluding pages.
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