MELANCHOLY-BETWEEN MEDICAL PATHOLOGY AND LITERARY CRITICISM
MELANCHOLY-BETWEEN MEDICAL PATHOLOGY AND LITERARY CRITICISM

Summary/Abstract: The texts signed by Jean Starobinski raise general human problems, such as melancholy, the need for transparency, the necessity for culture in order to evolve. Inevitably, no matter how objectively the critic proposes to remain, his writings expose an entire ontological system. Although theoretically Starobinski proposes a detachment from the analyzed texts, once the analysis begins, a merger with its subjects can be observed. What this Swiss critic brings new is how it throws lights and shadows on the studied works, because, as a result of his medical studies, no detail can be eliminated and the very context of the work is defining for its occurrence. Practitioner of psychiatry for a long time, Starobinski has the chance to study literature from a dual perspective: cultural and ailing. In the merger of the two sides lies the mastery of this psychiatrist who has professed his faith to dive into the hidden truths. Critical thinking is an allegorical vision of the human condition along the evolution of culture. The method proposed by Starobinski is to overturn the discrepancies between the inner world and the outer world, for both are interconditioned in our lives, and even more so in the lives of the authors of literary works. Starobinski’s moral duty, as he perceives it, is to reveal and expose all the imperfections of human nature.

• Details
• Contents