História e loucura no Brasil através da obra de Lima Barreto

Abstract

The present work aims to analyze the work “Diário do Hospício”, by the literary writer Lima Barreto, published posthumously in 1953. The diary was written on January 4, 1920, fifteen days after his admission to the National Hospital for Alienated, located in the city from Rio de Janeiro. His diary is a great testimony, and more than that, it is the intellectual look of a patient who critically observed the asylum environment, his physical structure, the behavior of other inmates, and the staff of employees and doctors. In this way, the chosen literary source allows a dialogue between concepts, such as loneliness, madness and, mainly, to know the paths taken by asylum history and the understanding of diseases of the mind and how they were perceived in Brazil between the 19th and early 20th centuries. Therefore, the analysis of Lima's narratives will be supported by the concept of representation of the real, by Roger Chartier and also supported by the works of Lilia Schwarcz in “Triste Visionário” and Magali Engel in “A madness, the hospice and the psychiatrist in Lima Barreto ”. The results of the work will allow for a more sensitive consideration to the aforementioned subjects.