CFP: Early Modern Anger: A Reappraisal. RSA 2016, Boston.
Submissions due: 7 June 2015
This panel will examine the multifarious nature of inquiry into anger as a rhetorical, historical, political, philosophical, religious object from the late fourteenth to the early seventeenth century. Scholars interested in the evolution of the notion of anger from different philosophical frames (from Platonism to Aristotelianism, Stoicism and Epicureanism) are encouraged to send their abstracts. We also welcome those interested in fostering approaches from different fields of investigation, in order to expand the discussion. Theoretical surveys, interdisciplinary considerations, and longue durée approaches will be preferred to close readings of a given text.
Some sample topics would be the following:
- Classical representations of anger and their transmission: the wrath of Achilles, Herakles’s hubris, the Erinyes, Nemesis, Phthonus, Atë.
- The role of anger in the discussion of contemporary affairs, politics, theology, and education included. For instance, the analyses and witnesses by historians and philosophers of angry mobs, the theological discussion on God’s vengeful anger, the physical aggressions inflicted to Renaissance scholars in their universities (for instance, Lorenzo Valla, Carlo Sigonio), etc.
- Rhetoric and poetics: anger in deliberative oratory, the banning of ancient comedy, freedom of speech, theories of style.
- The afterlife of classical treatises on the topic, as Aristotle’s Rhetoric 1378a30–1380a5, Seneca’s De ira, Lactantius’s De ira Dei, etc.
Organizers: Jorge Ledo and Anna Laura Puliafito (Universität Basel)
We encourage proposals for both complete sessions (three papers) and individual papers. Submissions, to be conveyed either to Jorge Ledo (jorge.ledo@unibas.ch) or to Anna Laura Puliafito (anna-laura.puliafito@unibas.ch) by Sunday, 7 June 2015, must include: titles and abstracts (max. 150 words); CV (max. 300 words; no prose bios accepted); keywords, and affiliation.
Please contact Anna Laura Puliafito for more information.
