An IASH Work-in-Progress seminar, delivered by Dr Manos Tsakiris (Postdoctoral Fellow, 2023-24)
A Cognitive Approach to Space in Hellenistic Poetry: Metaphor, Embodiment, Enactivism
Much of Hellenistic poetry (3rd-1st century BCE) was produced at a time of significant political and military upheavals in the eastern Mediterranean basin, which saw the expansion of the Hellenic world into the middle-East and North Africa. Scholarship has analysed Hellenistic poetry with the intention of measuring the extent to which it aligns with the gaze of the coloniser in the construction of a Hellenic identity. The description of space has been at the forefront of such analyses, in attempts to understand how some spaces functioned as middle grounds between Hellenic and non-Hellenic cultures. In this talk, I will take a different approach and try to dissociate space from the imposition of social and political identities. Research in the field of cognitive science demonstrates that space can be much more than landscape: human interaction with the surrounding environment is essential for meaning-making and permeates all aspects of our existence. I will demonstrate how the theories of embodiment and enactivism can be fruitfully applied to the study of literature; and how a study of space in Hellenistic poetry can reveal a lot about - often cross-cultural - human thought processes since classical antiquity.
Please join in-person, or click the link below to join the webinar:
https://ed-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/81857401179
Passcode: 6aSe7GF7