The Five Senses in Medieval and Early Modern Cultures: Literature and Language
The study of the historical and cultural formation of the senses has attracted increasing scholarly interest in recent years. We invite abstracts for 20-minute papers from medievalists and early modernists (in English literary and cultural studies or in linguistics). Topics may include but are not limited to
sensory environments
sensory metaphors
sensory hierarchies
sense impairments
gender and the senses
Papers might explore
how sensory experiences are expressed and ordered by language
how literature grows out of and evokes sensory experiences
how sensations were interpreted in the late medieval and early modern periods
how the meanings of sensory terms have changed with time
how the knowledge of sense perception was transmitted
To maximise the interaction among the conference participants, there will be no parallel sessions. The concluding session of the conference will include a panel discussion of the outstanding problems in the fields and the trends for future research.
Confirmed keynote speakers
Professor Vincent Gillespie, University of Oxford
Dr Farah Karim-Cooper, King's College London
Professor Richard Newhauser, Arizona State University
Please send abstracts to annette.kern-staehler@ens.unibe.ch by 15 February 2013.