Madness: Sacred and Profane
The Ninth International Conference of the Taiwan Association of Classical, Medieval and Renaissance Studies
National Taiwan University
23-24 October, 2015
Madness, as one of the most intriguing of all cultural questions, has challenged thinkers since antiquity. For instance, Plato in Phaedrus pointed out that divine madness can be associated with creative insanity of seers and poets. In Greek tragedies, madness at times was perceived as the form of divine punishment to drive heroes mad. While Cicero stated that virtue is the only medicine for the diseased mind, Galen’s humoral theory construed the body as the main cause of madness. In courtly poetry, “fol’amor” (mad love) indicated unbridled passion. Thomas Hoccleve lived his madness as divine possession and a humoral imbalance. Hieronymus Bosch’s 1480 painting depicts a doctor cutting the stone of folly from the forehead of a madman. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Ophelia’s madness is demonstrated through sexual deviance.
To explore madness as an important question, this conference welcomes papers from scholars working in all fields within Classical, Medieval, and Renaissance studies. We are especially interested in papers that investigate ways in which madness, in all its forms, has been conceived, presented, and interpreted. We also encourage new theoretical frameworks within which to consider madness.
Topics for consideration may include (but are not limited to):
- Critical explorations of madness/sanity/insanity
- Politics of madness (the subversive/prophetic/unrestrained)
- Boundaries of madness/normality/rationality
- Visualization of madness
- Sacred forms of madness
- Madness and art
- Madness and creativity
- Madness and the emotions
- Madness and gender
- Madness and language
- Madness and medicine
- Madness and the moralistic/legislative
- Madness and obsessions
- Madness and sexuality
- Madness and society
- Madness and wizardry
TACMRS warmly invites papers that reach beyond the traditional chronological and disciplinary borders of Classical, Medieval, and Renaissance Studies. Please submit proposals (250 words) along with a one-page CV to TACMRS.NTU@gmail.com by 1 February 2015.
The Conference will take place on 23-24 October 2015 at National Taiwan University in Taipei, Taiwan. The conference will provide accommodation for all selected speakers from outside the Taipei area. The Conference is sponsored and administered by the Taiwan Association of Classical, Medieval and Renaissance Studies (TACMRS). For more information, please visit the 2015 TACMRS Conference website: http://www.forex.ntu.edu.tw/tacmrs.
