Gastvortrag: "Vision, Visualization, and Emotional Contagion: Some Conceptual and Methodological Issues" (Prof. Dr. Douglas Cairns, Edinburgh)

Prof. Dr. Douglas Cairns (Edinburgh) – Vision, Visualization, and Emotional Contagion: Some Conceptual and Methodological Issues"

6. November, 18.30-20 Uhr, GER/37

This paper seeks to air the following basic questions: what is the relationship between the emotions of characters and audiences in genres such as epic and tragedy; and what role do vision and visualization play in the mediation of this relationship? But I approach these questions by means of a more limited one: do the emotional responses of audiences depend to any significant extent on forms of mimicry or mirroring of the emotions of characters, and if they do, must these emotions be elicited by direct visual stimuli or can they be set in train by the imagination? This will then lead to a further question: how (if at all) does this issue bear on the theory and practice of ancient literature, and can ancient theory and practice help us frame the questions that we should like to see answered with the help of modern research in cognitive humanities? The paper will argue that they can – that ancient theory and practice highlight significant conceptual questions that need to be raised regarding the differences and similarities among such phenomena as mirroring and mimicry, imagining how another person might feel, imagining how one might oneself feel in another’s situation, and sharing another’s emotions.