Speaker: Bradley Nelson, Department of Classics, Modern Languages and Linguistics, Concordia University - Academia.edu, Google Scholar, ResearchGate

Abstract: »Perceived through the lens of trauma therapy, the extreme lamentations, accusations, and self-flagellations of characters like Grisóstomo, Cardenio, and Don Quixote appear to mimic the symptoms and pathologies identified by trauma theorists as typical of patients suffering from PTSD. What stands out in these cases is the void where a concrete or, perhaps better stated, external cause for said traumas would normally be found. None of the female beloveds have said or done anything to merit the pathological words and actions of their supposed suitors. The goal here is to analyze Cervantes’s exploration of the links between masculine imagined erotic traumas and sexual violence, driven, as they are by the aesthetics and sexual politics of courtly love. The overarching object is to discuss how Cervantes’s texts can be used to critique contemporary attacks on racial justice, academic freedom, and higher education driven by disinformation, specifically fictional traumas and crises.« (Source: Online Program)

Wikipedia: History of Europe: History of Spain / Habsburg Spain | Fiction: Fictional victims of sexual assault | Literature: Spanish literature / Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote | Sex and the law: Sexual assault