IMC 2006: Sessions
Session 1312: Emotions between Brain and Body
Wednesday 12 July 2006, 16.30-18.00
| Moderator/Chair: | Evamaria Heisler, Sonderforschungsbereich 'Kulturen des Performativen', Freie Universität Berlin |
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| Paper 1312-a | 'Love hath brought us to this pitous ende': Emotion, Motivation, and Suicide in The Legend of Good Women (Language: English) Index terms: Gender Studies, Language and Literature - Middle English, Medicine, Philosophy, Women’s Studies |
| Paper 1312-b | Die Konstruktion von Tanzwut als Krankheit (7.-17. Jahrhundert) (Language: Deutsch) Index terms: Anthropology, Medicine, Performance Arts - Dance, Religious Life |
| Paper 1312-c | Depictions of Mélusine in the Upton House Fragments: Gesture, Emotion, and Humanity (Language: English) Index terms: Art History - General, Language and Literature - French or Occitan, Manuscripts and Palaeography |
| Abstract | Abstract paper -a: It has been claimed that love brings death to the women in Legend initially seems true. However, I argue that the emotions of fear, shame, anger, sorrow, guilt, and despair complicate the notion that these are simply multiple cases of martyrdom for love. My paper explores these emotions as motivations in relationship to each suicide in the Legend. I see emotion as a cognitive function that helps humankind to organize data and action in relationship to known and unknown circumstances. My presentation will show that the emotions in Legend can be considered embodied solutions to problems the characters cannot solve through logical planning. Abstract paper -b: Mittelalterliche Quellen überliefern wiederholt Zeugnisse von zwanghaftem Tanz, etwa den Tanz von Kölbigk (1021) und die Tanzepidemie von 1374. Anthropologische Ansätze haben diese Ausbrüche als psychotische Reaktionen auf die Disziplinierung des Körpers interpretiert. Das Konzept 'Tanzwut' formiert sich jedoch im Diskurs von Klerikern über den Tanz in der Kirche, über deviantes Verhalten im Sakralraum. Zugleich wird es mit körperlichen Phänomenen verknüpft und performativ von den Tanzenden verwirklicht. Das Syndrom 'Tanzwut' als semantisches Netzwerk erweist sich in seiner Konstruktion also nicht als Ausbruchsreaktion, sondern als Medium der Disziplinierung des Körpers. Abstract paper -c: The National Trust's Upton House is home to a series of fragments from a late 15th century illustrated French prose Roman de Mélusine. The extant fragments cluster around the latter stages of the romance, including the emotional climax in which Raymondin's denunciation of the fairy Mélusine compels her departure from Lusignan. This exploratory paper will show how the careful depiction of individualised gestures among these (to my knowledge) hitherto unstudied illustrations contributes to the most emotionally intense pictorial representation of Mélusine's final moments in human form found among both prose and verse manuscripts, and will discuss some of the implications arising from this. |