Emotions and the Biblical World (EABS)
Program Unit Type: Section
Accepting Papers? Yes
Call For Papers: For the 2017 joint EABS and SBL IM meeting in Berlin we invite paper proposals on a broad theme of “Emotions and Material Objects.” While there is no agreement as to how to define emotions, few scholars would now conceive of emotions as entirely subjective, individual, and even fewer would think of them as immaterial. But even though it may be broadly recognised that emotions are embodied, and materiality may be acknowledged as an indispensable context in which they function, are culturally constructed, expressed and interpreted, the relationship between emotions and materiality remains elusive. This is even more so in our attempts to conceptualise ancient emotions, given the fragmentarity of our evidence.
Materiality includes both the physicality of the bodies and the material objects surrounding bodies. In our 2017 session we plan to focus on the latter, that is material objects, or material reality more generally, which may evoke, witness to, mediate, inspire, or intensify, emotions. We invite contributions which analyse emotions and images, statues, altars, and other material objects, including both actual archaeological material, and objects as depicted in ancient literary sources. Papers may likewise discuss buildings (such as temples, houses, etc.), including their destructed parts and their repurposing into new structures (spolia), but also space and its organisation, similarly both in existing archaeological sites, and as attested in literary and other textual evidence. This may include references to objects or buildings as notions, ideals, and imaginations, evoking emotional responses (for example, the Jerusalem Temple). Finally, inscriptions may be discussed both in terms of their content, and how their material qualities relate to emotions.
Program Unit Chairs
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