The NIMH (National Institute of Mental Health) defines depression as a common but serious mood disorder that causes severe symptoms (asthenia, anhedonia, abulia, among many others) that affect how you feel, think, and handle daily activities, such as sleeping, eating, or working.

Contemporary literature has the unique power of exemplification of the force of depression as both a creative and a destructive phenomenon. This seminar attempts to bring together specialists in the topic to explore the many expressions of depression in contemporary literature and how they represent such a mood disorder as the starting point of great works as well as of the means to put an end to the own life. Our goal is to clarify the dual polarity of depression by paying attention to its representation through literature.