O estigma da loucura em ficções de Machado de Assis e de Lima Barreto, ecos no agora

Abstract

From an anachronistic reading, the present master's thesis focuses on the possibility of reflecting on the stigma of madness and its echoes in the now, inside and outside of literary works. Turning to Brazilian Literature, I bring as an object of analysis the works O alienista, by Machado de Assis, and Diário do Hospício, by Lima Barreto. Realizing that both works of fiction reveal to the reader the great myth of the 19th and 20th centuries, that is, science, especially the positivist one, I intend to establish a bridge with the present, with the facts that happened during the years of the research – 2018 to 2020 – from questions such as: Who is crazy? Why is madness a threat? Which human being did psychiatry defend? What is your connection with today? What if history repeats? In order to situate the reader about the history of Madness, I bring the classic História da loucura, by Michel Foucault, as the main theoretical foundation. Assuming that I cannot analyze works of fiction without even investigating and questioning the atrocities committed outside of literature, I bring to the discussion the Holocausto Brasileiro: vida, genocídio e 60 mil mortes no maior hospício do Brasil, by Daniela Arbex. Believing that madness has to do with racial issues and, in order to discuss them, I arrive at O espetáculo das raças: cientistas, instituições e questão social no Brasil – 1870-1930, by Lilia Moritz Schwarcz. The ultimate goal of this work is to find a way, among many, to reflect on the theme of madness, so that the bridge between past and present - regardless of when the present moment is - never breaks, after all, the nomenclatures change, but in the end, the repression is the same.