The Five Senses in Medieval and Early Modern Cultures: Literature and Language
University of Bern
7–8 June, 2013
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 an abstract (max. 250 words) and a bio-note by 15 February 2013 to annette.kern-staehler@ens.unibe.ch