Description
Book SynopsisAnxieties of Interiority and Dissection in Early Modern Spain brings the study of Europe’s “culture of dissection” to the Iberian peninsula, presenting a neglected episode in the development of the modern concept of the self. Enrique Fernandez explores the ways in which sixteenth and seventeenth-century anatomical research stimulated both a sense of interiority and a fear of that interior’s exposure and punishment by the early modern state.
Examining works by Miguel de Cervantes, María de Zayas, Fray Luis de Granada, and Francisco de Quevedo, Fernandez highlights the existence of narratives in which the author creates a surrogate self on paper, then “dissects” it. He argues that these texts share a fearful awareness of having a complex inner self in a country where one’s interiority was under permanent threat of punitive exposure by the Inquisition or the state. A sophisticated analysis of literary, religious, and medic
Trade Review
'The book is well written and researched... Each chapter is an insightful reading of a group of texts.' -- Dale Shuger Renaissance Quarterly vol 69:01:2016 'Fernandez provides an authoritative challenge to the generalist assumptions inherent in writings concerning interiority and selfhood. His new way of thinking is bound to become a vital reference source for future research.' -- Ana Duarte Rodrigues Isis vol 107:02:2016
Table of Contents
Introduction: Dissective Narratives 1. Dissection and Interiority: The Case of Spain 2. Fray Luis de Granada's Ill-Fated Defence of the Inner Man 3. Quevedo and the Interiority of the Body Politic 4. Cervantes' Mechanical Interiors and Zayas' Female Anatomies Conclusion: Compliant Resistance
