Old Norse and Emotions Study Day @ University of Sydney

Old Norse and Emotions Study Day

Date: 27 October 2016
Venue: Roger’s Reading Room, John Woolley Building A20, Science Road, The University of Sydney
Workshop organiser and enquiries: Kimberley-Joy Knight (kimberley.knight@sydney.edu.au)
Registration: The workshop is free of charge but attendees are kindly requested to register for the event for catering purposes. Kimberley-Joy Knight (kimberley.knight@sydney.edu.au)

The sources for Medieval Scandinavia have often been regarded as cold and unable to provide insights into the emotional lives of the people who lived during this time. As W. I Miller (1992) observed: “People’s initial impression of sagas is that the saga world is coldly unemotional – not only the sensibilities of characters in them, but the sensibilities of the narrative style as well.’ However, scholars including Miller and Bjørn Bandlien, Carolyne Larrington and Kirsten Wolf have demonstrated the important role that emotions play and that the sources for Medieval Scandinavia are not as emotionally barren as they might first appear.

The Old Norse and Emotions study day, to be held at the University of Sydney on 27th October, will explore how we can use sources from Medieval Scandinavia for the history of emotions. The workshop will explore questions such as:

  • How can we uncover the emotional lives of medieval Scandinavians?
  • What are the interpretative difficulties with the sources?
  • How do the conventions of the saga narrative filter depictions of emotional life?
  • How do we map the linguistic terrain of saga emotions?
  • Can archaeology shed light on medieval emotions?
  • How can we use runic inscriptions to inform our understanding of emotions?

The workshop will have three main strands each led by scholar connected to the Centre for the History of Emotions:

  1. Emotions in Old Norse Literature (Professor Carolyne Larrington, distinguished visiting fellow)
  2. Emotions in Old Norse Historical Sources (Dr Kimberley-Joy Knight, postdoctoral research fellow The University of Sydney CHE)
  3. Emotions in Scandinavian Material Culture (Dr Shane McLeod, CHE Associate Investigator and Honorary Staff Member at the University of Tasmania, and Dr Kimberley-Joy Knight, postdoctoral research fellow The University of Sydney CHE)

A short reading pack, which will form the basis of the discussion, will be sent out in advance of the workshop.

For more info about each speaker, please visit: http://www.historyofemotions.org.au/events/old-norse-and-emotions-study-day