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    Medieval Communities and the Mad

    Narratives of Crime and Mental Illness in Late Medieval France

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    Author(s)
    Pfau, Aleksandra Nicole
    Language
    English
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    Abstract
    The concept of madness as a challenge to communities lies at the core of legal sources. This book considers how communal networks, ranging from the locale to the realm, responded to people who were considered mad. The madness of individuals played a role in engaging communities with legal mechanisms and proto-national identity constructs, as petitioners sought the king's mercy as an alternative to local justice. The resulting narratives about the mentally ill in late medieval France constructed madness as an inability to live according to communal rules. Although such texts defined madness through acts that threatened social bonds, those ties were reaffirmed through the medium of the remission letter. The composers of the letters presented madness as a communal concern, situating the mad within the household, where care could be provided. These mad were usually not expelled but integrated, often through pilgrimage, surveillance, or chains, into their kin and communal relationships.
    URI
    https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/43136
    Keywords
    Madness; Insanity Defense; Pardon; Community
    DOI
    10.5117/9789462983359
    ISBN
    9789462983359
    Publisher
    Amsterdam University Press
    Publisher website
    https://www.aup.nl/
    Publication date and place
    Amsterdam, 2020
    Series
    Premodern Health, Disease, and Disability,
    Classification
    History and Archaeology
    CE period up to c 1500
    Literary studies: ancient, classical and medieval
    Pages
    240
    Rights
    All rights reserved
    • Imported or submitted locally

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    License

    • If not noted otherwise all contents are available under Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

    Credits

    • logo EU
    • This project received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 683680, 810640, 871069 and 964352.

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