ANZAMEMS Conference Panel: Facial Feeling – Call For Papers

Call for Papers for a panel session at Tenth Biennial ANZAMEMS Conference, to be held at the University of Queensland on the 14–18 July 2015:

Facial Feeling

How does the face signify or express emotion in medieval and early modern culture? Papers are invited for one or perhaps two multidisciplinary panels that would consider the face as a site of passionate or emotional feeling in medieval and early modern culture, whether in textual, visual or material form. How do medieval and early modern poets, dramatists, musicians, writers, thinkers, artists, philosophers and theologians conceptualise the face (human? divine? angelic? demonic? animal?) and its capacity to express, signify, or conceal emotion? How does the face “speak” to us? What is the relationship between iconic, indexical and individualised emotions?

Papers may wish to consider the following topics:

  • Emotional encounters between the faces of the human and the non-human, or faces of different ethnicities
  • The relation between text and image in the representation of emotion (e.g. banderoles expressing words or lyrics in visual images, emblem books, etc. )
  • Visual representations of the faces of the virtues, vices and passions (in manuscripts, printed books, woodcuts, painting, sculpture, stained glass, etc.)
  • Metaphors, similes, and other forms of rhetorical discourse about the face
  • Literary and dramatic descriptions and characterisations of facial emotion
  • Medieval and early modern philosophical, theological, scientific or medical discourse about the face

Preliminary inquiries are welcome, but the final deadline for a 200-word proposal and brief biographical note (not more than 50 words) is Monday, October 27th, Inquiries and/or proposals should be emailed to: sjtrigg@unimelb.edu.au.

ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions: http://www.historyofemotions.org.au/research/research-projects/speaking-faces-describing-the-facial-expression-of-emotion.aspx?tax_3140=3151&page=2

ANZAMEMS Conference website: http://anzamems.org/?page_id=186