Project description
Exploring hysteria in the laboratory and on the stage
The spectacle of the human body, particularly in cases of hysteria, has long fascinated both medical practitioners and theatrical audiences. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, this fascination reached its zenith, blurring the lines between scientific study and artistic interpretation. With the support of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the HYSTHEAS project explores the portrayal of hysteria in medicine and theatre at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. It checks how artistic imaginaries shaped scientific inquiry into hysteria, and how hysterical symptoms influenced theatrical productions. Examining Italian case studies, particularly from the female asylum of San Clemente in Venice, the project compares archival sources with theatrical writings.
Objective
When and why does the exposure of the body become, in itself, spectacularised? HYSTHEAS investigates this question by looking at a specific case study: the body affected by hysteria – the most spectacular of neuroses – and its exposure in two contexts, medicine and theatre, at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. How do literary and artistic imaginaries influence the scientific study of hysteria? How do hysterical symptoms, identified in a medical context, influence theatrical productions? The project will examine a selection of Italian case studies. Specifically, I will consult the archive of the female asylum of San Clemente (Venice), focusing on the period from the 1870s to the 1930s.The archival sources will be compared with the theatrical writings on the body and gesture that arose in the same years. The starting point will be the little-studied repertoire of the Italian Grand Guignol, complemented with other scenes that attracted audiences through the spectacularity of the pathological body. The staged, posed body is what connects the exhibition of female bodies suffering from hysteria in the medical sphere with the same exhibition in the theatrical sphere. The pose in itself will be considered a form that straddles fiction and reality, art and life. The iconographic apparatus (photos of medical records, but also images for treatises and drawings for newspaper articles) and writings on the body from the two fields (medicine and theatre) will constitute the materials to be compared.
The project addresses areas of study – history of mental illness and theatre – that have rarely been compared in Italian studies. Above all, the project's impact and reflection on the performing arts is of primary importance. The contemporary performance scene is increasingly opening up to accommodate dramatic compositions written by/for “non-standardised bodies”. HYSTHEAS will shed new light on the body’s exposure in order to overcome the “disease–spectacularisation” nexus.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
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CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
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Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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Call for proposal
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(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2022-PF-01
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30123 Venezia
Italy
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