Published:

Une lecture scientiste du génie à la fin du XIXe siècle. L’anormalité des personnalités d’exception selon Cesare Lombroso

Dominique Rougé

Abstract

Cesare Lombroso, an Italian alienist of the late 19th century, regarded geniuses as higher degenerates, influenced as he was by the theory of degeneration that accounted for mental disorder originating from hereditary defects. In this article, I shed new light on his work “Man of Genius”, in which he focuses on the biography of some great writers to explain how their work stems from pathology, while identifying genius with insanity.I aim at demonstrating that, even though Lombroso’s scientist and reductionist theories may appear ludicrous today, they are nonetheless still alive, concealed within some “beuvistic” interpretations of literature.


Key words:  Genius, insanity, degeneracy, heredity, scientism, classification.

Citation rules

Rougé, D. Une lecture scientiste du génie à la fin du XIXe siècle. L’anormalité des personnalités d’exception selon Cesare Lombroso. Romanica Silesiana, 7(1). Retrieved from https://journals.us.edu.pl/index.php/RS/article/view/5825

Vol. 7 (2012)
Published:


ISSN: 1898-2433
eISSN: 2353-9887

Publisher
Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego | University of Silesia Press

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