Monstruosidades e o mundo de ponta-cabeça : representação de monstros em folhetos impressos na Inglaterra moderna (1604-1688)

Abstract

This dissertation aimed to construct an analysis of the representations of monsters written and disseminated in ephemeral prints during the 17th-century, in England. For this purpose, it took the period from 1604 to 1688 as a central point, especially because it determines the extent to which these printed narratives were produced, as their relationship with the belief in the monstrous at the time. In this sense, this project sought not only to understand what was the monster for the English in the Early Modern Period, but also to what extent such beings could be mobilized to externalize, at times, desires, critics or ideas of that time. After the set of selected sources, which are endowed with particularities due to their format and readership, was analysed how these accounts were intertwined with the experimentation of a series of religious and political acts. Using Roger Chartier’s concept of “representation,” we tried to understand how this ephemeral and widely circulated printed materials (retained under the name of “ephemeral literature” or “street literature”) described cases of the birth or apparition of monsters. By focusing on this upside-down England, we reflected on the possible interlocutions of these ephemeral printed materials with the medical treatises and philosophical production on monstrosity, in order to signal how this monstrous could be represented textually or visually. Having considered the disputes between Catholics, Puritans, and Anglicans, we focused on the monstrous in the context of political obstacles between the Stuart monarchs and Parliament. At the same time, through the documentation obtained through Early English Books Online, we considered these textual narratives in light of the games of power, the processes of identity construction and the relationship with the other, trying to delimit how the monstrous could personify the figure of the political or religious enemy. In addition to this perspective, there was an effort to verify the female role in the process of describing monsters, understanding how women were made to feel guilty about the existence of these beings. When considering these aspects, we investigated how the published stories on this subject contributed to a logic of moralization and reinforcement of an androcentric view, converging into a process of control over bodies, female sexuality and motherhood. Considering that the monstrous takes root and flourishes over time, gaining strength in places where order was in chaotic, we examined English society in the 17th century. Therefore, we asked to what extent the monstrous was a literary thought to address local problems or a part of a universe of ideas, with teratology being an expressive element in the history of England.