Symposium: Madness, Memory and Violence

Radboud University, NIjmegen. 9 y 10 de Noviembre 2015.

Organizan:
Prof. Brigitte Adriaensen
Marileen La Haije

The eras of violence that plagued numerous regions of Latin America during the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and 1990s have left a strong imprint on Latin American literature and other cultural expressions such as film, music, theater and visual arts. It is striking that in a considerable number of these artistic productions mental perturbations related to situations of extreme violence are a recurrent feature.

However, the different functions of madness in art in relation to the representation of violence and the transmission of memory have not yet been investigated in a systematic manner. A number of studies on madness in literature underscore the (thematic, discursive, narratological, critical-evaluative, etcetera) possibilities of literary representations of madness, for example, its rhetorical effectiveness (Bernaerts, Felman).

This Symposium will take a similar approach to explore the potential of madness in art in relation to the representation of violence and the transmission of memory. It departs from the idea that madness in these cultural expressions constitutes a possibility of transmitting memory, provoking critical reflection on violence and its socio-psychological repercussions.