Corporeal Fear and Corporeal Delight: Body-based Metaphors for Expressing Emotion in Ugaritic Song

[fr]

– Jeudi 29 novembre 2018 de 16h à 18h
Conférence et vidéo conférence de Robert Hawley, EPHE
_ Sur place au CNRS d’Ivry sur Seine, 27 rue Paul Bert, métro Porte de Choisy/Porte d’Ivry, salle C en sous-sol
ou à distance par vidéo-conférence
[en]
– Thursday, November 29, 2018 4 p.m.-6 p.m.(Paris time)
A lecture by Robert Hawley (EPHE)
CNRS building, 27 rue Paul Bert, Porte de Choisy/Porte d’Ivry subway station, room C in the basement or by distance through video-conference


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[fr]
Cette conférence est la 22e séance mensuelle du séminaire interdisciplinaire :
“The Individual and his Body in the Ancient Mediterranean Basin” organisé par Alice Mouton.

Résumé :
The Ugaritian poets’ stereotyped use of body-based metaphors for conveying the experience of intense emotions such as delight, fear or grief has long been recognized. Several “stock” phrases and passages appear repeatedly in a number of different lyric and epic songs, all of which were probably set down in writing (in the local vernacular and by means of the alphabetic cuneiform script then in use) in the mid- to late 13th century BC. This presentation will give a brief survey of the body-based vocabulary used in these stock phrases, along with an overview of the history of their interpretation, and of the (lexicographic) problems which remain unresolved. A sketch of where (that is, in which internal organ or organs) the Ugaritian poets believed the individual emotions to manifest themselves will then be attempted, and some synchronic and diachronic comparisons with other ancient literatures made.