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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
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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 – 8:30
Meeting up and Registration (PARKVEIEN 9, see map)
8:30 – 9:00
Jens Eike Schnall: Welcoming Address
Jan Kozák: Overview of the Programme
Session I: Introductory and Comparative
9:00 – 9:45
Jan Kozák (Bergen) Conceptual Metaphor, Analogic Thinking and Body Symbolism
10:00 – 10:45
Jens Eike Schnall (Bergen) The Body Politic and Conceptual Metaphor
11:00 – 11:45
Barbora Sojková (Oxford) Talking Heads
Lunch at Café Christie Session II: Medieval Myth and Religion
13:00 – 13:45
Marie Novotná (Prague) Was Berserk a Bear?
14:00 – 14:45
Eldar Heide (Bergen) Sexual Metaphors Conveying the Essence of Old Norse Mythology?
15:00 – 15:45
Jiří Dynda (Prague) Body and Corporeality in the Slavic Anthropogonic Narratives
16:00 – 16:30
Presentation of the research groups in Bergen, MSCA and other networking possibilities.
ca. 19 – Evening meeting for a beer at Det Akademiske Kvarter (OLAV KYRRES GATE 49, see map on page 5)
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Friday, 10 May Session III: The Cultures of Antiquity
9:00 – 9:45
Jørgen Bakke (Bergen) Imaging Bodies in Ancient Greek Culture
10:00 – 10:45
Evelyne Koubková (Yale) Resounding Bodies
11:00 – 11:45
Martin Pehal (Prague) 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 – 13:45
Rasmus T. Slaattelid (Bergen) Metaphors of the Labyrinth in Philosophy
14:00 – 14:45
Helga Mannsåker (Bergen) The Role of Metaphor in Psychiatric Nomenclature and Discourse
15:00 – 15:45
Helen Leslie (Bergen) The Eyes of Justice: Morality and Body Metaphors in English Legal Texts
16:00 – 16:45
Concluding Discussion and Reflection: 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
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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
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Meeting up on Thursday evening – Det Akademiske Kvarter – OLAV KYRRES GATE 49
Historisk Museum (Saturday morning) – HAAKON SHETELIGS PLASS 10
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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.
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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 of metaphor that
doesn’t include body explicitly, it can still yield useful discussion with implications for the body
symbolism.
The Shared Questions
While we will connect our discussions via the primary topic of metaphors, analogies,
symbolism, cognitive mapping and in most cases also through the topic of the body, there will
be a broad diversity of cultural areas, thematic foci, theoretical backgrounds and academic
disciplines among the presenters. To prevent divergence and disconnection between
participants and to facilitate the discussions, it is advised that we include addressing some of
these questions in our talks:
1. Could you describe how specifically does the process of metaphoric or symbolic transference work in your particular case?
2. What happens in the process? Has anything been filtered out? Was anything condensed, foregrounded? Transformed? How is the meaning produced, coded?
3. What has been gained by the use of metaphor or symbolic expression in the case of your topic? What purpose does it seem to fulfil?
4. Do you register any interesting specificity or unique principle with regard to the inner workings and construction of the metaphors/symbols in your material?
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5. Do you think there might be something (partially) analogous or comparable in our contemporary culture?
The point of the questions is simply to meet each other in the moment of reflection on how the
metaphor‐related phenomena work and try to express it in some sort of conceptual language
that can be discussed by the others. Of course, in the case of some of the presentations a
number of these questions might be not applicable. Just remember to include a certain step
back in your presentation where you reflect on the issue from a more general, systematic or
theoretical perspective, so that it can become more useful and relevant to the other
participants who come from different disciplines or study a different culture.
CHANDLER, Daniel: Semiotics: The Basics, Routledge 2017
HOFSTADTER, Douglas & Emmanuel Sander: Surfaces and Essences: Analogy as the Fuel and Fire of
Thinking, Basic Books 2013
JOHNSON, Mark: The Body in the Mind: The Bodily Basis of Meaning, Imagination, and Reason,
University of Chicago Press, 1987
LAKOFF, George & Mark Johnson: Metaphors We Live By, University of Chicago Press 1980
RICŒUR, Paul: The Rule of Metaphor: The Creation of Meaning in Language, Routledge 2015
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THE ABSTRACTS
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Conceptual Metaphor, Analogic Thinking and Body
Symbolism
Jan A. Kozák
Marie Skłodowska‐Curie Fellow in Old Norse Philology, Department of Linguistic, Literary and
Aesthetic Studies, University of Bergen, Norway
Abstract
In this introductory talk the topic of the workshop itself and its ramifications will be overviewed
and the research questions presented. It will be divided into two parts: the first part devoted
to metaphor in general and the second to body symbolism.
In the first part following questions will be discussed: What is metaphor and how does it work?
What are the current theories of metaphor? What other phenomena are related to metaphor?
How does metaphor work in everyday language and thought? How does metaphor work in non‐
standard language: myth, poetry, secret languages, schizophrenia, early stages of language
acquisition etc.? Tentative answers to these questions will be accompanied by a number of
examples from various fields (anthropology, psychology, linguistics, literature, science) that will
illustrate the usefulness of approaching the diverse phenomena through the prism of the
common principle of metaphor.
The advantages and limits of the metaphor principle and metaphor theory will then be
discussed with the audience ‐ Where do the contemporary cognitive theories of metaphor fall
short? Are cultural differences downplayed and what problems does it engender? Are there
any autochthonous theories of metaphor in cultures you study which contrast with the
contemporary theory?
In the second part of the talk we will focus on a specific type of metaphoric expression: body
symbolism. Different types of body symbolism will be illustrated by concrete examples from
various cultures with the emphasis on myth or ritual. The prominence of body symbolism will
be then explained with the help of the cognitive linguistic hypothesis about the pre‐conceptual
experiential core of cognition and this hypothesis will then be put to discussion with the
audience.
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About the researcher
Jan studied Latin and Religious Studies in Prague
and even if he eventually focused on the Old
Norse mythology and religion, he always
remained a “generalist” trying to discern the
common patterns in myths and rituals beyond
the issues restricted to just one cultural area. His
philological training in Latin, Greek, Sanskrit and
Old Norse is mirrored in his interest in the
corresponding religious cultures, their
similarities and differences. With regard to
method and theory Jan is eclectic, combining
(post)structuralism with phenomenology,
psychology, semiotics and cognitive linguistics (which is more or less the combination of
approaches relevant for the study of metaphor). One of the core questions of his research is
the issue of analogizing between linguistics and religion: what principles can and cannot be
transferred between the two domains. With regard to pedagogy, Jan focuses on the use of
visual arts, performance and experiment in his teaching practice.
Research interests
conceptual metaphor; analogy and similarity (in thought and perception); riddles (folklore);
New Comparative Mythology; Monomyth/Hero’s myth; structure of initiation and sacrifice;
Cosmic Tree; labyrinth (mythology); constitutive exception; self‐reference; semiotic square;
quaternity; trifunctional hypothesis; folk etymology; semantic etymology; postmodern secular
mythology and ritual.
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The Body Politic and Conceptual Metaphor:
Learned Body Imagery in the Medieval North
Jens Eike Schnall
Assoc. Prof. in Old Norse Studies, Department of Linguistic, Literary and Aesthetic Studies, University
of Bergen, Norway
Abstract
The paper deals with conceptual metaphors within learned traditions of body imagery and
focuses especially on two source texts in Old Norse, the Speech against the bishops and the
Elucidarius. These are discussed in the light of Latin sources, e.g. Biblical Honorius’ Elucidarium
and John of Salisbury’s Policraticus.
With Lakoff & Johnson as the point of departure, the main theoretical interest lies in specific
uses of images and metaphors in the Middle Ages and Early Modern time, more precisely,
images and related metaphors that serve as a means to structure complex matter and abstract
ideas and permit a discourse about them. The human body and its senses play an important
role as a conceptual model both in Latin and vernacular literature. This becomes especially
evident in form of the body politic and other imaginations of social orders in the form of the
human body. The body is a highly complex system, body parts are attributed specific functions
and symbolic values. The great metaphoric potential lies in the multifaceted interplay of the
whole and its parts, inside and outside, activity vs. passivity, the visible vs. the invisible, the
natural vs. the unnatural, the hierarchical vs. the non‐hierarchical and so on.
The paper asks which of the potential uses of the model are actualized in the different texts;
how the model facilitates the transition from analytic to moral uses; how metaphors are
constructed; how rather original actualizations contrast with a rather stable symbolism of the
body – a very fundamental collective symbol which remains powerful also in contemporary
cultures.
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About the researcher
Jens Eike Schnall has studied Scandinavian and
German Studies and Philosophy in Göttingen,
Copenhagen and Vienna and obtained a PhD
from the University of Göttingen in 1997. After
that, he has been employed and/or conducted
research at the universities of Bonn, Reykjavík,
Copenhagen and Freiburg, until he took up a
position as associate professor of Old Norse
Studies at the University of Bergen in 2013.
Apart from the classical genres of Old Norse
Literature, his research interests include
medieval encyclopedic literature and orders of
knowledge with a special focus on images of
knowledge and conceptual metaphor.
Research interests
medieval encyclopedic literature and orders of knowledge; literature, science & technology;
images of knowledge; conceptual metaphor; mapping and cartography; courtly literature;
learned networks and media; medieval and early modern food cultures; transformations of
the heroic; medievalism
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Talking Heads
Barbora Sojková
DPhil candidate in Oriental Studies (Sanskrit), Balliol College, University of Oxford
Leverhulme Doctoral Student, Doctoral School “Publication Beyond Print”
Abstract
In this presentation, I am going to revisit my BA thesis “Talking Heads: Comparative and
Structural Analysis of the Myth of Vital Severed Heads”. The talk will be divided in two parts. In
the first section, I will introduce the kernel of my BA thesis, namely the three myths about
severed heads which are endowed with some sort of a special power which allows them to
speak, to deliver an important knowledge. These are the myths about Bran, whom we know
from the Welsh Mabinogion, Orpheus, the legendary ancient Greek musician, and Mímir, the
“pet‐head” of Old Norse god Óðinn. Although the myths are from all over the Indo‐European
provenance, they share an exciting amount of motifs and are, so to speak, a good introduction
into the Indo‐European usage of the metaphor of the head.
In the second part, I am going to introduce a new talking head which I did not know at the times
when I was writing my BA thesis. This is Dadhyañc Atharvan whom we know from the Vedic
literature from the earliest times – he is present already in the Ṛgvedasaṃhitā. Dadhyañc is a
mythological priest who possesses a knowledge about ritual and he, as might be expected, also
happens to be a talking head, although only for a short period of time. The fragments of the
myths, which we find in the Vedic corpus, seem to complement the myths about Bran, Mímir,
and Orpheus; yet, nobody has noticed this connection so far.
Apart from enjoying myself on the playground of comparative Indo‐European mythology, the
main goal of my presentation is to understand the usage of the metaphor of the head
throughout different Indo‐European traditions, with a special emphasis on Vedic India which is
the area of my expertise.
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About the Researcher
Although I have graduated BA and MA in Religious
Studies (Charles University, Prague), the daily bread
of my current research in Oxford, where I am
currently pursuing my DPhil, is Sanskrit. Nowadays,
the most of my research is philological, my interest,
however, still lies in something that could be
rendered as a history of ideas or religious studies.
The bulk of my undergraduate and graduate
education was formed by a general study of history
and anthropology of religions: I have worked on
traditions reaching from Judaism to Old Norse
mythology, from Wales to India. These days, I am
predominantly interested in ancient India, from its
Vedic “prehistory” until, roughly, the age of the
epics. My dissertation is looking at the notion of
“animal” and “human” in ancient Indian sources,
namely the Brāhmaṇas, the exegeses of Vedic ritual
(ca. 700‐450 BCE).
Times and again, I am fascinated by a wide range of topics: I teach history and philosophy of
yoga, I am interested in researching things from non‐human perspective, in humanities
research as an embodied practice, in comparative Indo‐European linguistics, digital humanities,
objects, Marxist anthropology, or memory. My own academic practice is hugely informed by
the way I move in the world: when I do not read obscure Indian texts, I practice yoga, climb
mountains, run long distances, and sleep outdoors.
Research Interests
Vedas, ancient India, realia, ritual studies, animal studies, Chris Marker, W.G. Sebald,
perspectivism, anthropocene, yoga, brahmanism, Indo‐European linguistics, history of
Indology and reception of India, movement, mountains, post‐colonialism
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Was Berserk a Bear?
Marie Novotná
Department of Languages, Faculty of Humanities, Charles University.
Abstract
This paper attempts to show changes in perception of body in the extant Old Norse sources by
using theory of conceptual metaphor. Examples will be taken from episodes describing shape‐
shifting and physical effects of emotions. Old Norse literary corpus includes works where an
archaic concept of body‐soul complex can be traced, as well as those where the Christian
dichotomisation is already clear. As the dating of individual works is due to oral and aural phasis
as well as due to the manuscript transmission process almost impossible, this axis cannot be
identified with a time axis, but has to be understood as monism‐dualism axis. It has been shown
in the Old English literature, that the hydraulic model and cardiocentrism survived long time
after the arrival of Augustinian ideology and the same can be probably seen in the Old Norse
sources.
In terms of cognitive linguistics, this process of distinguishing between the inanimate body and
immaterial soul can be described as transfer from the conceptual metaphors to the literary
ones, as so called metaphorization. Thus, in some texts, where the physical and mental level
was still connected, respective metaphors were understood as conceptual: BODILY
TEMPERATURE IS EMOTION, MIND (EMOTION, KNOWLEGDE) IS FLUID, EYE PAIN IS QUILT or
BERSERK IS BEAR.
In texts on the other end of our axis, those metaphors are just a literary ornament. Somatic
change is then understood as a result or a symbol of an emotion and changing of shape (hamr)
becomes a comparison. Thus paleness is not the same as fear, but its consequence, love warms
up only symbolically and berserk is strong as a bear.
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About the researcher
Marie has studied at the Charles University
biology (MA in zoology) because of
fascination of how something new can
come into being, both in course of
ontogenesis and in evolution.
At the same time, she studied Norwegian
philology and literature in Prague and
Icelandic language on Iceland, being
interested in the Middle Ages. She connected those independent interests in her dissertation
about the concept of the body in the Old Norse literature, written at the Department of
Philosophy and History of the Faculty of Natural Sciences. She teaches Old Norse literature,
language as well as translation theory and praxis.
Research interests
history of ideas or concepts, now mainly soul‐body connection: shapeshifting and
psychosomatic phenomena in the Old Norse literature, genre question, Jómsvíkingasaga,
translatology.
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Sexual Metaphors Conveying the Essence of Old
Norse Mythology?
Eldar Heide
Associate professor of Norwegian, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences.
Abstract
During the latest decades, several leading experts of Old Norse mythology have pointed out
how the gods pay a very high price for the creation of their cosmos. Meulengracht Sørensen
(1977) and Steinsland (1991 [1989]) point out that new, powerful breeds, like ancestral kings,
are created by the sexual amalgamation of gods and giants and therefore contain tremendous
tensions that often lead to a tragic fate. Mundal (2001) emphasized that the gods give away
invaluable objects or properties to the giants in order to build their society:
• Heimdallr pawns his hearing • Óðinn trades his eye for knowledge • Týr sacrifices his right hand to have the monster wolf Fenrir bound. • Freyr sacrifices his sword to get the giantess Gerðr
These losses give short‐term gains but weaken the gods and lead to their eventual downfall.
For example, because Freyr lost his sword, he has to fight his opponent with an antler in the
Ragnarǫk battle against the giants, in which the gods are defeated, and the world ends. Based
on this research, on may argue (probably without much opposition today) that ‘There is no such
thing as a free lunch’ is the essential idea in Old Norse mythology.
The founding and development of the gods’ society requires the exploitation of the giants and
other beings, and therefore a reconciliation of the fundamental opposites – although this
eventually leads to disaster. At the same time, the mythology fundamentally understands the
gods as male and the giants as female, and the interaction between these groups is often
understood in a sexual way (perhaps clearest pointed out by Clunies Ross 1994). Examples of
this are the myths mentioned by Mundal.
Blinding is in Old Norse ideology understood as symbolic castration, so when Óðinn trades his
eye, he symbolically castrates himself to get the knowledge that he wants from the giants.
When Týr sacrifices his right hand, he cannot use his sword, Old Norse sverð, which also means
‘penis’. So, he, too, symbolically castrates himself in his interaction with the powers of chaos.
The same applies to Freyr.
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In this paper, I will elaborate on these ideas by discussing the prose text Vǫlsa þáttr and the
Eddic poem Fjǫlsvinnsmál. I will argue that these texts to a large degree overlap in structure
and content, and that the latter presents the fate of the world tree, which is the centre of the
mythology, in the sexual metaphors outlined above.
About the researcher
I have a PhD in Old Norse studies from
the University of Bergen. Topics on
which I have published research include
Eddic poetry, Old Scandinavian religion,
sagas of Icelanders, visionary literature,
Scandinavian dialects, language history,
loanwords, contact linguistics past and
present, etymology, terminology, the
maritime aspects of the Old Norse texts,
onomastics, and Norwegian as a second
language.
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Body and Corporeality in the Slavic Narratives
about the Creation of Man
Jiří Dynda
Researcher at the Department of Palaeoslavistic and Byzantine Studies of the Institute of Slavonic
Studies of Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague (Slovanský ústav AV ČR, v. v. i.).; a PhD student of the
History of Religions at the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Faculty of Arts, Charles
University, Prague.
Abstract
The paper analyses four narratives attested in chronicles, religious treatises and folk legends
that it considers to be possible remnants of Slavic anthropogony myth that has partially
survived after the Christianization of Slavs. These fragments of myths about the origins of
humanity, the creation of man or the origin of his soul are built on the pervasive principle of
synecdoche and metonymy. A man is created by means of a merging of Earth or dirt either with
a particle of God (synecdoche principle), or with some object that has been in contact with God
(metonymy principle). Earth thus works as a symbolic mediator between body material coming
from God and between the human body coming from the Earth itself.
In the talk I would like to re‐evaluate the meaning of these semiotic principles with a special
focus laid on the role of human body and corporeality and its connection to the material of
Earth and the body of deities. Also, the semantic background of archaic Slavic culture, of the
Biblical apocrypha horizon and of medieval Orthodox popular culture will be considered, as well
as many common traits with the other Indo‐European anthropogony traditions that can be
positively identified in the myth fragments analysed.
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About the researcher
Jiří Dynda is a historian of religions and a
slavist. He specializes in archaic Slavic
religion and that is why he tried to learn
Latin, Ancient Greek, Old Church
Slavonic and Old Norse, even though
with mixed result in some of these.
General interest in archaic cultures and
mythologies brought him to study the
religious studies, but also to dabble in
comparative linguistics, philology,
archaeology, ethnography and folkloristics. He tries to anchor his works theoretically and
methodologically mostly in line with some recent trends he deems inspirational, be it in
religious studies (comparative mythology, symmetrical approach...), or in social anthropology
(structural, linguistic and symbolic anthropology...).
Among his publications the most noteworthy are the two recent monographs: a structural and
comparative analysis of Russian epic folklore Svjatogor: Smrt a iniciace staroruského bohatýra
(Svyatogor: Death and Initiation of the Russian Epic Hero) from 2016, and a bilingual edition of
primary sources for Slavic religion with his own translations and commentary Slovanské
pohanství ve středověkých latinských pramenech (Slavic Paganism in Medieval latin Sources)
from 2017. In late 2019 his third monograph on Medieval Russian homiletics will be published
(Slovanské pohanství a středověká ruská kázání).
Keywords/interests
the Christianization of the Slavic people, problem of Pagan‐Christian syncretism in the medieval
popular culture, Slavic languages and lexicography, Old Church Slavonic literature, Slavic
folklore tradition, comparative religion, methodology of structural analysis of narrative.
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Imaging Bodies in Ancient Greek Culture
Jørgen Bakke
Art History Section, Dept. of Linguistic, Literary, and Aesthetic Studies, University of Bergen Norway
and The Norwegian Institute at Athens.
Abstract
The first part of the talk will focus on the ancient Greek historical epistemology of metaphor
and myth and the second on the production of images of the body in ancient Greece. On the
ancient Greek cultural horizon the metaphor is one of the most basic tools of human language
and culture. In Aristotle defines the metaphor as of combinations of similar features in words,
meanings, and images. The poet, according to Aristotle, is someone who is particularly clever
in making (poieîn) such combinations. For Aristotle, and indeed for most pre‐Socratics, and
many post‐Socratic thinkers as well, myth (mûthos) is closely connected with metaphorical
combinatorics, because the material for the most sophisticated cultural metaporics, tragedy,
are stories (mûthoi).
Already 18th and 19th century thinkers such as Winckelmann and Hegel pointed out that
images of the body, especially sculptures, and especially of the athletic, young male body, was
the ultimate expression of ancient Greek culture. In the talk I will address examples of images
of the body in ancient Greece as material metaphors of culture. Contrary to the art historical
tradition that since Winckelmann has regarded the visual portrait of the athletic, young male
body in ancient Greece as an expression of the free spirit of Athenian democracy, I aim to
demonstrate how these images can be viewed in the context of the Aristotelian poetics of the
metaphor. Classical Greek sculptures can thus be regarded as heuristic combinations of
narrative elements (muthoi) from regional visual traditions that go all the way back to the late
Neolithic.
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About the researcher
Jørgen studied Art History, Ancient Greek
Philology, and Comparative Religion at The
University of Bergen, Medieval Studies at The
Norwegian Institute in Rome, and Classical
Archaeology at The Norwegian Institute at
Athens.
He has also taken introductory courses in
Ancient Hebrew, and Japanese at The
University of Bergen, and basic Economic
subjects (Mathematics, Statistics, and
Business Administration) at The Norwegian
School of Economics.
Jørgen has mainly worked with Greek cultural
history and landscape history from the Bronze Age to the early modern period, and his
approach has always been multi‐disciplinary. He has worked with ancient and medieval Greek
literature as well as visual and material culture. Since the mid‐1990’s he has been involved with
archaeological field projects in Greece. His theoretical approach has always been much inspired
by the French tradition in the history of knowledge (G. Bachelard, M. Foucault, and M. Serres)
and rhetorical theory. More recently he has also worked with agency theory. Jørgen has also
worked with the historiography of art history, early modern history painting, and contemporary
Norwegian landscape painting.
Research interests
Greek cultural history and archaeology, ancient Greek oral culture, rhetorical theory and
practice, cultural optics, Greek science, cultural memory, history of sexuality, landscape
archaeology, garden history, landscape painting, and history painting.
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Resounding Bodies
Evelyne Koubková
PhD student in Assyriology, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Yale University
Abstract
Musical instruments are often conceptualized as bodies in many cultures including the modern
Western one, but the nature and specificity of the metaphoric body varies from a generic one
to a more concrete human or animal body. This can be expressed by verbal reference to the
instrument´s body parts as well as visually, by adding bodily features such as hands and faces
and changing the instrument´s shape.
Ancient Mesopotamia offers evidence for associating instruments with bovines (bulls and
cows). This can be connected to their sacred nature as these instruments were used in rituals
to sing prayers to deities and were occasionally deified themselves. Animal imagery related to
bovines was closely associated with Mesopotamian deities who were depicted with bovine
horns and often described as bulls and cows in a variety of contexts, thus emphasizing their
might, vigour, beauty and other qualities. Indeed, the use of the ubiquitous bovine metaphor
for deities seems to be very versatile and persistent throughout the three millenia of
Mesopotamian culture.
This firm association has had a puzzling consequence on the imagery of bovine body being
associated with such diverse musical instruments as lyres and drums. Whereas the idea of
bovine body producing sacred sound remains, its realization completely changes.
Mesopotamian lyres are best known from the Royal tombs of Ur from the 3rd millenium BCE.
They have a bull´s head attached as a decorative element to their resounding body which is
conceived as the body of a reclining bull. If our reconstruction of the long history of
Mesopotamian cult is correct, the genre of prayers originally sung with the accompaniment of
a lyre was later performed with a different instrument, a kettledrum. Whereas the sound of a
lyre was likened to the bellowing bull, the kettledrum acquired the same bovine association by
different means: by being covered with a bull´s hide and by burning the bull´s heart with
aromatics in front of the new instrument, thus creating a powerful material as well as
metaphysical connection. As a comparandum, a third example of a sacred musical instrument
associated with a cow is drawn from ancient Egypt: sistrum, a rattle used in the cult of the
bovine deity Hathor, is supposed to emit sound resembling a cow´s movement through the
high grass of the delta. Thus we can explore three cases of metaphorical transfer between bulls,
deities and musical instruments which proceed along completely different lines.
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About the researcher
Evelyne Koubková is a PhD student in Assyriology at
the Yale University, focusing on ancient
Mesopotamia, especially its religion and rituals.
Before specializing in this ancient Near Eastern
culture, I enjoyed exploring a range of religions and
cultures in the program of Religious studies at the
Charles University in Prague. I hope not to ever
abandon this broad comparative and
methodologically reflective basis of my thinking.
I am interested in ways we can speak about rituals
we will never experience and in the methodological
conundrum between text and performance and/or
experience. Lately, one of the promising avenues
for me has been the focus on sensory experience.
Working in museum collections contributed also to my interest in materiality; materiality of
divine representations such as cult statues as well as materiality of texts seen as material
objects. The ways in which a variety of sensory experience is engaged to mediate divine
presence and to communicate with the divine is currently at the centre of my attention,
enriching my previous focus on ritual structure and syntax. A variety of my more specific
research interests include the notion of cultic purity, non‐anthropomorphic divine
representations, use of musical instruments in rituals, and ritual space.
Keywords (interests)
Ancient Mesopotamia, Ritual theory, Ritual syntax, Religion in the Ancient world, Sensory
experience, Ritual space, Performance studies, Materiality, Museum studies
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The Wor(l)d is an Image: Bodily Metaphors and
Graphic Puns in Ancient Egypt
Martin Pehal
Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Faculty of Arts, Charles University,
Prague.
Abstract
In my presentation I will proceed in two steps. Following Orly Goldwasser and others, I will first
argue that—given the pictorial character of ancient Egyptian script—metaphor in its
multifaceted form is the basic principle of the ancient Egyptian symbolical system with far‐
reaching ontological ramifications. I will try to shed light on the conceptual aspect of ancient
Egyptian metaphor by describing the intricate system of the so‐called “classifiers” – “mute”
icons (because not pronounced) which provide us with crucial information about the ancient
Egyptian categorization system.
In the second part, I will illustrate the metaphorical aspect of ancient Egyptian thinking/writing
by way of a case study on the usage of bodily fluids (semen, menstrual blood, breast milk, and
the so‐called redju fluids of Osiris/the deceased) in religious texts as metaphorical means of
expressing the process of dying and rebirth. Bodily fluids are ideal because they are ambivalent:
they may be simultaneously thought of as polluting and beneficial, which makes them a unique
tool in our attempt to understand the ancient Egyptian classification system. By analysing the
transgressive moments from the textual sources available to us, we may map the web of
symbolical associations, create a “semiotic map” related to a segment of the symbolical system.
And because systems tend to replicate their structures and project them to include the whole
of creation (“the sky is the limit”), understanding the web of symbolical associations on one
microcosmic level has the potential to provide understanding of other, often larger semiotic
clusters as well.
I will then contextualize the findings arrived at in relation to the ancient Egyptian bodily fluids
semiotic complex within the framework of higher‐order anthropological theories structuring
the death‐rebirth experience cross‐culturally.
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About the researcher
Martin Pehal combines research on ancient
mythological texts and ritual performance
with studies of contemporary rituals and
ritually borderline phenomena (such as public
festivities). Insights provided by the study of
the ancient Egyptian symbolical system
enable Martin to recognize underlying
patterns of symbolical behaviour in aspects of
contemporary culture which might not be
deemed religious but which, in many aspects,
share similar dynamics.
Martin’s latest teaching activities therefore focus on transcultural comparative analyses of
basic transition rituals (funerals, weddings) and their transformation under the changing socio‐
cultural circumstances of modern society.
Research Interests
Ancient Egyptian mythology, narratives, rituals; anthropology of religion; semiotics; symbolical
systems; structuralism; pensée sauvage in ancient and modern societies; public festivities.
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Metaphors of the Labyrinth in Philosophy Rasmus T. Slaattelid
Professor in Philosophy of science. Centre for the Study of the Sciences and the Humanities, University
of Bergen.
Abstract
Labyrinthic structures and representations of them are known to have existed for at least 4500
years. The first mention of a labyrinth in written sources was found in linear B on a small
Mycenaean clay tablet and is dated to ca. 1400 BCE. The earliest known example of a
petroglyph or graffiti of a labyrinth, has been found in the main room of an underground
chamber tomb in Sardinia, dated to 2000‐2500 BCE. (Kern, 2000) Whereas ancient graphic
displays of labyrinths as well as descriptions of dance patterns are variations of the so‐called
Cretan unidirectional labyrinth, most literary descriptions of labyrinths seem to refer to
pluridirectional mazes.
The difference is interesting from a philosophical point of view, since a Cretan type labyrinth
consists of a long and winding path that leads the subject from the entrance through to the
center of the structure, and then winds all the way back to the exit/entrance, while the maze
has no obvious path and confronts the subject with multiple forks at junctures which can lead
to dead ends, further into the labyrinth, or to the exit. When philosophers speak about
labyrinths, in most cases they seem to refer to mazes and not to Cretan labyrinths, although
there are exceptions.
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About the researcher
Started out as a musician, transposed into
languages and literature, then to philosophy, and
got stuck.
Research interests
Modeling and visualization of scientific and other
knowledge. Science policy, philosophy of the
humanities.
Reading
"[…] the illiterate bulk of mankind that walk the high‐road of plain, common sense, and are
governed by the dictates of Nature, [are] for the most part easy and undisturbed. […] But no
sooner do we depart from sense and instinct to follow the light of a superior principle, to
reason, meditate, and reflect on the nature of things, but a thousand scruples spring up in our
minds, […]. Prejudices and errors of sense do from all parts discover themselves to our view;
and endeavouring to correct these by reason we are insensibly drawn into uncouth
paradoxes, difficulties, and inconsistences, which multiply and grow upon us as we advance in
speculation; till at length, having wander'd through many intricate mazes, we find ourselves
just where we were, or, which is worse, sit down in a forlorn skepticism."
George Berkeley, Bishop of Cloyne (1685–1753)
Principles of Human Knowledge (1734)
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The Role of Metaphor and Metonymy in
Psychiatric Nomenclature and Discourse
Helga Mannsåker
Associate Professor in Nordic languages, Department of Linguistic, Literary and Aesthetic Studies,
University of Bergen, Norway
Abstract
The topic of the talk is the ubiquity of metaphor and metonymy in psychiatric nomenclature
and discourse. Psychiatry is a research field where the research “objects” (i.e. mental disorders)
are not directly observable or objectively measureable, the classification of the disorders are
constantly debated and changed, and the etiology (cause) and pathogenesis (manner of
development) of most mental disorders are still more or less unknown. According to the
Conceptual Metaphor Theory abstract and subjective phenomena are typical target domains
which are understood with the help of more concrete and well‐known source domains, and
research has shown that patients and lay people as well as psychiatrists use a variety of
metaphors when discussing mental disorders.
In the talk central source domains for mental states and psychiatric disorders will be presented,
such as the human body, objects, location, motion and forces. The role of metonymy in medical
nomenclature and discourse will also be discussed. Several of the metaphors used in psychiatric
discourse seem to have metonymic bases, or, to put it in another way: the metaphors appear
to be motivated by correlations in experience rather than perceived structural similarity
between the source and target domain. The names of disorders are themselves often
metonymic (as well as metaphoric), as they are motivated by a directly observable feature of
the disorder rather than the disorder itself.
Possible question for the discussion:
In what ways is deviant behaviour interpreted and described in different cultures?
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About the researcher
Helga studied Nordic languages at the University of
Bergen. She is also a registered nurse. Based on
theories from cognitive linguistics, pragmatics and
critical discourse analysis she has examined
discourse regarding psychiatric disorders and the
origins and uses of psychiatric expert terms. Some
of the core questions of her research are
metaphoric vitality (i.e. When does a metaphor
cease to be a metaphor?), lay people’s use of
psychiatric expert terms, discourse regarding
sensitive topics and the role of language in
stigmatization.
Research interests
conceptual metaphor; conceptual metonymy; blending theory; etymology; expert language;
psychiatry; determinologization of psychiatric terms; critical metaphor analysis; critical
metonymy analysis; relevance theory; word formation.
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The Eyes of Justice: Morality and Body Metaphors
in English Legal Texts
Helen Leslie
Researcher in Medieval Philology/BFS Starting Grant Holder
Abstract
In iconography, Justice is often represented as female and blind. Metaphor is used extensively
in legal discourse and impacts the ways in which legal texts are understood and decoded, if we
accept that language determines how we see reality. This paper will concentrate on
personifying metaphors containing parts of the body, although personifying legal metaphors
may also contain reference to bodily functions (e.g. the law suffering an amendment), moral
values (e.g. the law punishes a violation), or human actions (e.g. a provision conferring power).
In English legal discourse, the law and and various legal entities are portrayed as being or as
possessing body parts similar to those of the human body.
It is often suggested that metaphor reflects and affects our thought processes concerning the
subject we are describing. Personifying metaphors containing body parts rein in the
abstractness of the concept of law as a whole. Law becomes a figure in its own right,
represented for example by Lady Justice (or Iustitia in Ancient Roman art), an allegorical
personification of the moral force in judicial systems. Personifying legal metaphors centre the
human body as the moral force (or as holding the key to morality) in society and in legal
discourse.
The first part of the paper builds a corpus of personifying body metaphors in English legal
discourse, and traces their provenance, use and application where possible. In the second part
of the paper, the pervasiveness and centrality of personifying body metaphors to constructions
and expressions of morality in legal discourse will be analyzed.
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About the researcher
Helen F. Leslie‐Jacobsen works as an Old Norse
Philologist at LLE at the University of Bergen,
leading the project “Transformations of Medieval
Law: Innovation and Application in Early Modern
Norwegian Law Books” (2018‐2022), funded by
Bergen Research Foundation and the University
of Bergen.
Between 2003 and 2013, Helen studied English
Literature at the University of Durham, Medieval
Icelandic Studies at the University of Iceland, and
completed a PhD at the Centre for Medieval
Studies at the University of Bergen. In addition,
she has taken courses in many facets of medieval
studies and in various languages (both dead and alive).
The study of narrative has always been a red thread running through her work. She has has
worked on a wide range of medieval literature in Old English, Middle English and Old Norse,
medieval reference texts, translation and modern legal discourse. This interest has most often
been pursued in combination with manuscript studies and book history.
Research interests
Research areas include Old Norse mythology (with a special interest in sacred groves), Old
Norse poetry (with a special interest in prosimetric texts), manuscripts (with a special interest
in compilation, registers and layout), and her current focus, medieval law (with special
interests in translation and Old Norwegian/Icelandic/Faroese law).
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Place for your notes and doodles
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