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oapen-20.500.12657-431362020-12-03T01:45:40Z Medieval Communities and the Mad Pfau, Aleksandra Nicole Madness; Insanity Defense; Pardon; Community bic Book Industry Communication::H Humanities::HB History::HBL History: earliest times to present day::HBLC Early history: c 500 to c 1450/1500::HBLC1 Medieval history bic Book Industry Communication::D Literature & literary studies::DS Literature: history & criticism::DSB Literary studies: general::DSBB Literary studies: classical, early & medieval 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. 2020-12-02T16:00:22Z 2020-12-02T16:00:22Z 2020 book https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/43136 eng Premodern Health, Disease, and Disability application/pdf n/a 9789048533329.pdf Amsterdam University Press 10.5117/9789462983359 10.5117/9789462983359 dd3d1a33-0ac2-4cfe-a101-355ae1bd857a 240 Amsterdam open access
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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.
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