ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how Cervantes contributes to the understanding of the melancholic mind in early modernity. Two aspects of his work are particularly innovative in the context of early modern narrative and in synchrony with medical-philosophical ideas: (1) his focus on the physiological and psychological processes of melancholy, which is consistent with the efforts of Juan Luis Vives, Juan Huarte de San Juan, Andrés Velásquez, Oliva Sabuco, and others to present the brain as the physical site of cognition-emotion as well as an interconnected entity; and (2) the fact that he focuses not only on the behavioral or “external” aspects of melancholy but, more importantly, on the “inner” ones. He does so via the portrayal of a mind lost in an interior fictional world, a mind that is capable of thinking independently and creating an alternative reality, a mind that is both free and deranged, whose emotional energy sustains yet eventually destroys his organism. Moreover, the portrayal that Cervantes makes of his hero’s psychology can and should be read not only as an illustration of the Renaissance’s ambivalent conception of melancholy but also as a fictional tool to explore the human mind, its possibilities, and limitations.
