Cultural taboo and the limits of the mind in the novel Jedan razoren um (A certain degraded mind) by Lazar Komarčić. The medicalization of madness and the changes in Serbian literature at the end of the 19th century Cover Image

Tabu kulturowe i granice rozumu w powieści Jedan razoren um (Pewien zdegradowany umysł) Lazara Komarčicia. Medykalizacja obłędu a przemiany literatury serbskiej końca XIX wieku
Cultural taboo and the limits of the mind in the novel Jedan razoren um (A certain degraded mind) by Lazar Komarčić. The medicalization of madness and the changes in Serbian literature at the end of the 19th century

Author(s): Sylwia Nowak-Bajcar
Subject(s): Cultural history, Aesthetics, Social history, Serbian Literature, 19th Century, Theory of Literature, Sociology of Literature
Published by: Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu
Keywords: cultural image of mental illness; an insane asylum as an infirmerium space; transgression; Serbian prose of the late 19th century; modernization processes;

Summary/Abstract: In this article, Lazar Komarčić’s novel Jedan razoren um from 1893 is presented as a text inaugurating the literary discourse devoted to the medicalization of madness. The authors of the previous discussions of this novel have highlighted the issue of tabooing madness, without paying attention to the fact that it is the first work in Serbian literature whose author, going beyond the boundaries of cultural taboo, described the space of a Belgrade insane asylum. The method of artistic articulation of madness (a pathological figure) and a psychiatric hospital (infirmerium) determines the groundbreaking importance of Komarčić’s novel as a starting point for research on the impact of the development of medicine on the cultural perception of the disease in Serbia and the development of Serbian modernism.

  • Issue Year: 2025
  • Issue No: 28
  • Page Range: 233-248
  • Page Count: 16
  • Language: Polish
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