Workshop: Transhistorical Emotions and Medievalism, with LOUISE D'ARCENS (Macquarie University, Syndey)

It is widely acknowledged that medievalism as a set of practices and experiences has an intense emotional dimension. This workshop will explore the transhistorical emotions underpinning medievalism: that is, feelings that are inseparably bound up with a perception or experience of, or desire for, contact with the medieval past. Transhistorical emotions register the passage of time while also suspending and even transcending it. Of these emotional states, the most fully examined has been nostalgia, but a broader range of transhistorical feelings remains to be anatomised in order to understand the complexity of our emotional encounters with the past. In this workshop we will explore the registers of feeling that are intertwined in experiences of medievalism, including the most under-explored dimension of transhistorical feelings, mood. Through this exploration we will aim to understanding the powerful emotional hold the medieval past has continued to exert over the modern world.

For more information, contact Theo Lap: t.b.lap rug.nl