Anxieties of Interiority and Dissection in Early Modern Spain

"Anxieties of Interiority is a well-researched and highly original study that offers a nuanced look at the literary production of the early modern period from an anatomical perspective. Fernandez's well-rounded knowledge of the history of anatomy and the social and political history of the early modern period serve him well here." -- David Castillo, Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, State University of New York at Buffalo "Fernandez's work will advance our knowledge of how the discourses of anatomy informed literary practice and narrative strategies, providing a semantic field as well as figurative language to enhance a different sort of cultural expression." -- Charles Ganelin, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Miami University "Well-written, clear, and concise, Anxieties of Interiority contributes to the interdisciplinary dialogue connecting literary and scientific discourse in early modern Europe in important ways that will resonate beyond the field of Hispanic studies." -- Cory Reed, Department of Spanish, University of Texas at Austi

Anxieties of Interiority and Dissection in Early Modern Spain brings the study of Europe’s “culture of dissection” to the Iberian peninsula, presenting a neglected episode in the development of the modern concept of the self.

Anxieties of Interiority and Dissection in Early Modern Spain brings the study of Europe’s “culture of dissection” to the Iberian peninsula, presenting a neglected episode in the development of the modern concept of the self. Enrique Fernandez explores the ways in which sixteenth and seventeenth-century anatomical research stimulated both a sense of interiority and a fear of that interior’s exposure and punishment by the early modern state.

Examining works by Miguel de Cervantes, María de Zayas, Fray Luis de Granada, and Francisco de Quevedo, Fernandez highlights the existence of narratives in which the author creates a surrogate self on paper, then “dissects” it. He argues that these texts share a fearful awareness of having a complex inner self in a country where one’s interiority was under permanent threat of punitive exposure by the Inquisition or the state. A sophisticated analysis of literary, religious, and medical practice in early modern Spain, Fernandez’s work will interest scholars working on questions of early modern science, medicine, and body politics.