17 March 2017

ETT workshop 2 – Inducing Emotions (Rhetoric, Politics, Narrative)

Geneva, Fondation Hardt

 

Overview

During the second workshop we shall focus on how emotions are stimulated and managed in an array of texts ranging from rhetorical handbooks to fictional narratives. We are interested in uncovering diachronic processes and/or synchronic continuities, as well as in exploring how narratives mobilize and exploit the audiences’ emotional reactions. A third focus is on the political dimension, i.e. on the role of the emotions in shaping (or dissolving) communities, both secular and religious.

By looking at the Hermogenian corpus and at its Byzantine reception, we shall try to understand which shifts (if any) occurred in rhetorical prescriptions concerning the manipulation of the emotions in speeches. Equally we shall investigate how emotions affected the narrative pact sustaining fictional story-telling as well as the consumption and production of poetry in different contexts (court, schools, monasteries). We shall also look at the strategies used by hagiographers and preachers to induce specific emotional reactions in their audiences. We shall compare Late antique/Early Byzantine and later Byzantine historiography, focusing on the emotions as history-shaping factors. We want to understand whether certain emotions play a more prominent role in history than others and whether they change over time in accordance with societal shifts. We shall also explore the use of classicizing terminology to express Byzantine emotions.

 

Participants

Prof. Floris Bernard (CEU), Prof. Anton Bierl (Basel), Prof. Douglas L. Cairns (Edinburgh), Prof. Stavroula Constantinou (Cyprus), Mr. Mircea G. Duluş (CEU), Prof. Niels Gaul (Edinburgh), Prof. Martin Hinterberger (Cypus), Dr Krassimira Magdalino, Prof. Paul Magdalino (St Andrews), Prof. Damien P. Nelis (Geneva), Dr Ioannis Papadogiannakis (KCL), Dr Aglae Pizzone (SDU), Dr Rafal M. Skiba (Geneva), Prof. Jan R. Stenger (Glasgow), Prof. Lioba Theis (Wien), Dr Matteo Zaccarini (Edinburgh).

 

Programme

10.00 – 10.10: welcome by Martin Hinterberger and Aglae Pizzone

10.10 – 11.00 Martin Hinterberger

11.00 – 11.10: coffee break

11.10 – 12:00: Aglae Pizzone

12.00 – 12.50: Stavroula Constantinou

12.50 – 13.40: lunch

13.40 – 14.30: Jan Stenger

14.30 – 15.20: Floris Bernard

15.20 – 15.30: coffee break

15.30 – 16.20: Mircea Duluş

16.20 – 17.10: Anton Bierl

17.10 – 18.30: concluding discussion