The image of body and illness in "The Remarkable Life of Don Diego" by Diego de Torres Villarroel

Abstract

The aim of this article is to analyse the poetics of the representations of the body and illness in "The Remarkable Life of Don Diego" by Diego de Torres Villarroel from the perspective of the "visual turn" which is produced within the art and science of the 18th century. The paper discusses the particularities of the discursive construction of the body in the "spectacular" dimension of the Ilustration's scientific gaze, which may be characterised by the desire to visualise medical knowledge through language.