TY - JOUR
T1 - Death in life and life in death: melancholy and the enlightenment.
AU - Ingram, Allan
PY - 2006
Y1 - 2006
N2 - This article, which deals with the 17th and 18th centuries, is concerned with the presence of death in the melancholiac's life as revealed in both the accounts written by sufferers themselves and medical works. It shows the exceptional place which melancholiacs consider themselves to occupy, compared to the rest of the living, as they inhabit the no-man's-land between life and death. The privileged status echoes the classical theme of the melancholic genius (Problem XXX). Although some, like George Cheyne or Samuel Johnson, denied the link, this cliché is nevertheless very present in the self-description of the melancholy. Suffering, which is always physical, is a sign of moral superiority.
AB - This article, which deals with the 17th and 18th centuries, is concerned with the presence of death in the melancholiac's life as revealed in both the accounts written by sufferers themselves and medical works. It shows the exceptional place which melancholiacs consider themselves to occupy, compared to the rest of the living, as they inhabit the no-man's-land between life and death. The privileged status echoes the classical theme of the melancholic genius (Problem XXX). Although some, like George Cheyne or Samuel Johnson, denied the link, this cliché is nevertheless very present in the self-description of the melancholy. Suffering, which is always physical, is a sign of moral superiority.
KW - melancholy
KW - George Cheyne (1671?–1743)
KW - English malady
KW - depression
KW - suicide
KW - Thomas Gray (1716–1771)
KW - accounts of melancholy
UR - http://www.gesnerus.ch/index.php?id=2&L=1
M3 - Article
VL - 63
SP - 90
EP - 102
JO - Gesnerus
JF - Gesnerus
SN - 0016-9161
IS - 1-2
ER -