Faculty of Classics University of Oxford |
Social and Cultural Construction of Emotions: The Greek ParadigmThe project ‘Social and Cultural Construction of Emotions: The Greek Paradigm’, is funded by an Advanced Investigator Grant awarded to Professor Angelos Chaniotis (All Souls College) by the European Research Council (2009-2013). The project aims at contributing to a more reliable, nuanced, and comprehensive history of emotions in the Greek world through the study of paradigms from Classical antiquity and a dialogue with the historical, social, and natural sciences. Emotions influence social relations; consequently, they are socially relevant, subject to scrutiny, judgment, and normative intervention. The manifestation, perception and treatment of emotions are subject to social interventions and to the influence of cultural change. Emotions in the Classical world have been primarily studied in the light of their representation in literature and art. Such studies have provided important insights; yet, they are based on works primarily created in a few major urban centres, almost exclusively by educated men of a higher status. This project is primarily based on an analysis of documentary sources (inscriptions and papyri, c. 800 BC-c. 500 AD), but also takes into consideration other textual evidence and archaeological material. Although inscriptions and papyri provide abundant, diverse, and representative evidence, they have never been studied in connection with this subject. As compared to literature and art, these sources represent a wide range of social strata and age-classes, originate in both genders, and are widely disseminated over time and space. These sources are analyzed both diachronically (history of the social and cultural factors that influence the manifestation of particular emotions) and synchronically (manifestations of emotions in defined historical contexts). The project plans to produce a series of monographs and collective volumes covering a large variety of subjects concerning the history of emotions in the Greek world, showing the relevance of Greek paradigms for the study of the historical and socio-cultural study of emotions in general. It will also produce a freely available and searchable on-line database of relevant documents (texts, translations, brief comments on relevant subjects, keywords), which will contribute to the dissemination of the collected information and will serve as a tool for further research on emotions both in antiquity and in general history as well as a subsidy in the teaching of ancient history and classics.
© C@O 2011: Classics at Oxford, Faculty of Classics. Webmaster. Last updated:
April 14, 2011.
|