Workshop on Conceptual Metaphors and Body Symbolism

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Workshop on Conceptual Metaphors and Body Symbolism WORKSHOP ON CONCEPTUAL METAPHORS AND BODY SYMBOLISM 9-11 MAY 2019 – PROGRAMME & ABSTRACTS Workshop organizers: Jan A. Kozák [email protected] (+420 603 871 870) Jens Eike Schnall [email protected] (+47 41 59 91 61) The Workshop is a part of the Marie Skłodowska‐Curie Project SYMBODIN The Workshop is grateful for the support of: The Research Group for Medieval Philology (UiB) Centre for the Study of the Sciences and the Humanities (UiB) The Medieval Cluster (UiB) The Research Group Images of Knowledge (UiB) The Research Group Literature and Religion (UiB) Conceptual Metaphors & Body Symbolism International Workshop Bergen 9 ‐ 11 May 2019 Contents Workshop Programme ............................................................................................. 5 Locations and Maps .................................................................................................. 7 The Workshop Theme and Questions ...................................................................... 9 The Approach and Attitude ................................................................................... 9 The Focus ............................................................................................................. 10 The Shared Questions .......................................................................................... 10 The Abstracts .......................................................................................................... 12 Jan Kozák: Conceptual Metaphor, Analogic Thinking and Body Symbolism ....... 13 Jens Eike Schnall: The Body Politic and Conceptual Metaphor: Learned Body Imagery in the Medieval North ............................................................ 15 Barbora Sojková: Talking Heads .......................................................................... 17 Marie Novotná: Was Berskerk a Bear? ............................................................... 19 Eldar Heide: Sexual Metaphors Conveying the Essence of Old Norse Mythology? .................................................................................................... 21 Jiří Dynda: Body and Corporeality in the Slavic Narratives about the Creation of Man ............................................................................................. 23 Jørgen Bakke: Imaging Bodies in Ancient Greek Culture ..................................... 25 Evelyne Koubková: Resounding Bodies ............................................................... 27 Martin Pehal: The Wor(l)d is an Image: Bodily Metaphors and Graphic Puns in Ancient Egypt .................................................................................... 29 Rasmus T. Slaattelid: Metaphors of the Labyrinth in Philosophy ........................ 31 Helga Mannsåker: The Role of Metaphor and Metonymy in Psychiatric Nomenclature and Discourse ........................................................................ 33 Helen Leslie: The Eyes of Justice: Morality and Body Metaphors in English Legal Texts ..................................................................................................... 35 WORKSHOP ON CONCEPTUAL METAPHORS AND BODY SYMBOLISM WORKSHOP PROGRAMME Wednesday, 8 May ca 7 pm Dinner for the speakers at Eike’s place (KRINGSJÅVEIEN 81, see map) Thursday, 9 May 8:15 – Meeting up and Registration (PARKVEIEN 9, see map) 8:30 8:30 – Jens Eike Schnall: Welcoming Address 9:00 Jan Kozák: Overview of the Programme Session I: Introductory and Comparative 9:00 – Jan Kozák (Bergen) 9:45 Conceptual Metaphor, Analogic Thinking and Body Symbolism 10:00 – Jens Eike Schnall (Bergen) 10:45 The Body Politic and Conceptual Metaphor 11:00 – Barbora Sojková (Oxford) 11:45 Talking Heads Lunch at Café Christie Session II: Medieval Myth and Religion 13:00 – Marie Novotná (Prague) 13:45 Was Berserk a Bear? 14:00 – Eldar Heide (Bergen) 14:45 Sexual Metaphors Conveying the Essence of Old Norse Mythology? 15:00 – Jiří Dynda (Prague) 15:45 Body and Corporeality in the Slavic Anthropogonic Narratives 16:00 – Presentation of the research groups in Bergen, MSCA and other 16:30 networking possibilities. ca. 19 – Evening meeting for a beer at Det Akademiske Kvarter (OLAV KYRRES GATE 49, see map on page 5) Page 5 WORKSHOP ON CONCEPTUAL METAPHORS AND BODY SYMBOLISM Friday, 10 May Session III: The Cultures of Antiquity 9:00 – Jørgen Bakke (Bergen) 9:45 Imaging Bodies in Ancient Greek Culture 10:00 – Evelyne Koubková (Yale) 10:45 Resounding Bodies 11:00 – Martin Pehal (Prague) 11:45 The Wor(l)d is an Image: Bodily Metaphors and Graphic Puns in Ancient Egypt Lunch break Session IV: Beyond Religion – Philosophy, Psychiatry, Law 13:00 – Rasmus T. Slaattelid (Bergen) 13:45 Metaphors of the Labyrinth in Philosophy 14:00 – Helga Mannsåker (Bergen) 14:45 The Role of Metaphor in Psychiatric Nomenclature and Discourse 15:00 – Helen Leslie (Bergen) 15:45 The Eyes of Justice: Morality and Body Metaphors in English Legal Texts 16:00 – Concluding Discussion and Reflection: 16:45 Similarities and Diversities 19:00 – Banquet/Reception (place t.b.a.) Saturday, 11 May 10:00 Guided tour ‐ Historisk Museum (HAAKON SHETELIGS PLASS 10) ca 11 City walk ‐ Bryggen, Håkonshallen Lunch ca 14 Trip up the Fløyen Page 6 WORKSHOP ON CONCEPTUAL METAPHORS AND BODY SYMBOLISM LOCATIONS AND MAPS Dinner for the speakers at Eike’s place, Wednesday evening – KRINGSJÅVEIEN 81 (bus 16, 17 from the city centre, bus stop “Laksevåg Senter”, or 25 mins walk from the university) The Workshop Seminar Room (Thursday and Friday) – Senter for vitenskapsteori – PARKVEIEN 9 Page 7 WORKSHOP ON CONCEPTUAL METAPHORS AND BODY SYMBOLISM Meeting up on Thursday evening – Det Akademiske Kvarter – OLAV KYRRES GATE 49 Historisk Museum (Saturday morning) – HAAKON SHETELIGS PLASS 10 Page 8 WORKSHOP ON CONCEPTUAL METAPHORS AND BODY SYMBOLISM THE WORKSHOP THEME AND QUESTIONS The Approach and Attitude Since the “rhetoric turn” in the second part of the 20th century it has been illustrated again and again that metaphorization is one of the core features (if not the base) of our cognitive apparatus. Metaphor, analogy and related mental operations are “the fuel and fire of thinking” (HOFSTADTER & SANDER 2013). The central proposition of this contemporary trend is that, far from being merely the dress of thought, rhetorical forms are deeply and unavoidably involved in the shaping of realities. (CHANDLER 2017: 149) Many studies have been done since the eighties within the field of linguistics, semiotics, philosophy and cognitive science (e.g. LAKOFF & JOHNSON 1980, RICŒUR 2003 and others), yet the use and application of this new research to mythology, ritual, religion and related areas of human culture has been rather scarce and unsystematic, even though there used to be a strong tradition of similar kind of thinking among the classics of anthropology in the sixties (Claude Levi‐Strauss, Mary Douglas). One of the principal difficulties of this kind of research in the 21st century is that it is inherently interdisciplinary. Scholars must venture outside their safe zone within the classics, medieval studies or other specialist (era or area) disciplines and absorb new concepts, methods and data from disciplines like linguistics, semiotics, cognitive anthropology or psychology. The aim of the present workshop is to collectively explore the possible methods and topics related to metaphoric thinking and help each other by providing feedback, offering ideas or possible connections to the presented topics. It is recommended for the speakers to tear away the polished surface of the presentation and let the others see how their thinking about the topic really works, don’t hide its gaps, jumps and irrational intuitions. Show your colleagues your academic ‘laboratory’ with your specific know‐how and efficient tools, but also with your specific challenges and unsolved riddles. Don’t be afraid to address the blind spots and inconsistencies of the scholarship and of your own work. It is especially recommended to think in questions and to prepare as many questions as possible. Pose them to yourself, to the audience at the end of your talk, and to the other presenters in the discussion segment. Page 9 WORKSHOP ON CONCEPTUAL METAPHORS AND BODY SYMBOLISM The Focus The focus is twofold: 1) PRIMARY FOCUS, “THE PRINCIPLE”: metaphor, metaphoric projection, use of analogy or concrete imagery which encodes something abstract or inexpressible otherwise, or which selects and condenses meanings in a specific way; there is no limit for the use of the metaphor – it can be poetic, everyday language, religious, politic, epistemological etc., recommended area is “mythical thinking”, but “myth” here can be taken in its broadest sense and presenters can surely choose topics outside of that; 2) SECONDARY FOCUS, “THE MOTIF”: ideally, the topic of conceptual metaphor should also be somehow connected to the image of the body (talking heads, blinded seers, symbolic eyes, figurative hearts, necks, blood, milk, semen, wombs, faces, embryos, skulls & bones, breath, tongues, teeth, brains, veins, cells, skins, orifices and even voices and souls), this topic is chosen because it is one of the richest sources of metaphors and metaphoric thinking in human culture, so it gives us an opportunity to compare how differently various cultures, ages, genres and cultural domains work with the basic substrate of physical bodily experience. However, the primary point of the workshop is to discuss how (conceptual) metaphors work, so in case you have a methodologically or theoretically interesting example
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