Abstract

RIOS MOLINA, Andrés. El niño y la niebla. La enfermedad mental según Rodolfo Usigli y Roberto Gavaldón. Cuicuilco [online]. 2009, vol.16, n.45, pp.27-50. ISSN 0185-1659.

The play El niño y la niebla, written by Rodolfo Usigli in 1936, was staged in 1951 and made into a film in 1953 under the leadership of Roberto Gavaldón. The focus of this work is mental illness and the role of values that govern family relations. The aim of this paper is to discuss ideas about mental illness, both in the theatrical version and the film, were used as structuring of the story. To this end we reconstruct the major features of the field of theater and film that allowed the emergence and wide acceptance of the work in question. Finally, we analyze the fusion of medical and cultural imaginary about mental illness.

Keywords : mental illness; mexican cinema; modern theater; Usigli; Gavaldón; sleepwalking; degenerationism.