A01=Aleksandra Nicole Pfau
Age Group_Uncategorized
Age Group_Uncategorized
Author_Aleksandra Nicole Pfau
automatic-update
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=HBJD
Category=HBLC1
Category=NHD
Category=NHDJ
Community
COP=Netherlands
Delivery_Delivery within 10-20 working days
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
Insanity Defense
Language_English
Madness
PA=Not available (reason unspecified)
Pardon
Price_€100 and above
PS=Active
softlaunch
Product details
- ISBN 9789462983359
- Dimensions: 156 x 234mm
- Publication Date: 01 Dec 2020
- Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
- Publication City/Country: NL
- Product Form: Hardback
- Language: English
Secure
checkout
Fast Shipping
Easy returns
The concept of madness as a challenge to communities lies at the core of legal sources. Medieval Communities and the Mad: Narratives of Crime and Mental Illness in Late Medieval France 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. Those considered mad were usually not expelled but integrated, often through pilgrimage, surveillance, or chains, into their kin and communal relationships.
Dr. Aleksandra Pfau is a professor of History at Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas. She received her PhD in 2008 from the University of Michigan, and has published several articles on crime in medieval France.
